Where is it illegal to smoke on beaches or anywhere outdoors and why?

How would you ever enforce a law of not smoking outside. Outside is free to everyone. You might can control no smoking on private property, but that’s it.

Next, there will be a law of no breathing inside or outside.

Doing some research, I’ve found that there are several places in California that have made it illegal to smoke on their beaches. (source) There are other cities as well that have made similar laws. Calabasas, California has one of the strictest laws, banning smoking in any indoor or outdoor public space with some exceptions for designated smoking areas.

In Delaware (where I grew up), the city of Bethany Beach has banned smoking on it’s beach and boardwalk. From what I remember when that came up, the reason was to cut down on littering (the beach often had a lot of cigarette butts laying all around) and because of secondhand smoke.

I personally don’t mind it, but I’m not a smoker. I can understand why smokers would have a problem with it though.

Crazy as it is, it’s technically illegal to smoke at the lake her because the lake is considered city property.

Around here they also got a wild hare to start rounding up stray cats at one time. That didn’t last long.

@Dutchess_III lol So can they drink beer at the lake?

It’s illegal because second hand smoke is harmful and it also creates a lot of litter. I can smell cigarette smoke a block away, I don’t want to be breathing it.

The California Legislature passed a ban on smoking in California State Parks last year, but Schwarzenegger vetoed it. Many of the beaches in California are state parks. There’s always next year.

The local reservoir where I live has fishing (non motorized boats) and a good system of trails. It is illegal to smoke anywhere in the reservoir boundaries.

Cigarette butts are the single biggest garbage problem on California beaches.

In New York City: “This newest prohibition will make it illegal to smoke in a 1700 city parks, including the 843 acre Central Park, on 14 miles of city beaches, on boardwalks and marinas, even in the popular pedestrian hangout in the newly designed Times Square.”

“The number of cities and counties that bar smoking in outdoor areas — including parks, cafes, concert venues, stadiums and beaches — has soared from 30 in 1999 to at least 1,124 today, according to the American Non-smokers’ Rights Foundation, an advocacy group that tracks local ordinances.

“What we’re seeing is the trend is going from the inside out,” says Cynthia Hallett, the foundation’s executive director. She says many places that have indoor bans are expanding their restrictions, which include 47 beaches and 222 parks.

Last month alone:

•Beverly Hills nixed lighting up in outdoor cafes.

•Albuquerque banned smoking in parks and public venues, including the zoo and botanical garden.

•Davis County, Utah, barred it from amusement parks, pools, public gardens, most parts of golf courses and even cemeteries.

“In some cases, (bans) are about fire safety,” says Steven Feldman, spokesman for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The National Zoo in Washington, which had small fires linked to cigarette butts, banned smoking in December.

At least 81 zoos have gone smoke-free and 88 others have designated smoking areas, Feldman says. He says zoos have acted because many visitors are children.”

USA Today

@zenvelo I wonder how hazardous it is for a “watered down” snif of cigarette smoke to be inhaled from a block away? Sure; you can smell it but will it really give you a lung infection or worse? Set the stage for a fatal illness if inhaled a couple times a month from a stray exhale?

Yes, we can drink beer at the lake! And I smoke anyway…all the fish and the coons and the ‘possums keep coming up dead, though, and it’s probably because of my second hand smoke.

@Aster Actually, it is harmful, I can even feel my heart rate increase and my breathing labor. That is anecdotal, but the CDC notes there is no safe level of secondhand smoke.

And while I begin to smell it a block away, I have to breathe it while I walk that block and get closer to the smoker.