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New Yorkers face the prospect of a smoking ban in all public parks, in the latest attempt to make the city smoke-free.
The move follows a ban in 2002 in which smoking was prohibited from all offices, restaurants and bars.
Health campaigners strongly back the proposals saying New Yorkers shouldn't have to breathe second-hand smoke, even outside, and children shouldn't have to see people smoking.
Under the Mayor's plans, those caught smoking in any of New York's 1,700 parks, playgrounds and recreation facilities would be fined.
The anti-smoking movement is already spreading through America with state legislature in California already ban smoking in all state parks and on parts of beaches. The small city of Belmont, just outside San Francisco has even banned smoking in apartment blocks, the first real signs of smoking bans coming into the home.
However the move was imemdiately slammed by tobacco companies who said the plans were highly restrictive.
A spokesman for cigarette makers Phillip Morris USA said: "We believe that smoking should be permitted outdoors except in very particular circumstances, such as outdoor areas primarily designated for children.”
Reader views (7)
All this is coming here. It's already started, with outdoor smoking bans. Also the cancer (excuse the pun) is spreading in places where you'd've never thought it stood a chance-France, Italy, even Spain. What chance do we have? With that tosser in Wales trying to ban it in playgrounds and parks, and I've already come across cafes which ban smoking outside. NOTHING would surprise me now. I think if you want to ban smoking, fine, but give us back all the billions of pounds we've poured into the Excheguer over the years, and take off all tax! Why should we pay to be treated like scum?
- Cathy Lintern, Ryde, UK
Let us have a complete ban on smoking.
When the "Nanny State" has to put up taxes to compensate for loss of tobacco revenue, then ALL NO-SMOKERS will have to pay up without complaint!
- Pete, Warrington, UK
There are still about 8 bars in New York where you can still light up in peace. They are centered around tobacco--cigar bars and hookah bars--and must derive a certain portion of their revenue from tobacco. This makes New York more smoker-friendly than London or any other UK city. Of course, the antismoking fanantics may soon decide that even these few havens represent a serious impediment to their jihad.
- Ray Albieri, Brooklyn
Smoking bans are just one aspect of a concerted campaign to purge New York of its working class and sanitize it into a playground for the ultrarich. Mike Bloomberg is the prissy little poster boy for this crusade.
S-M Hearmon: I DON'T understand bans in bars; a bar where one can't smoke is little more than an ice-cream parlor that happens to serve alcohol. Folks in Britain seem to be more aware of this than here in the States and are, admirably, staying away in droves.
- Chris Sorochin, Farmingdale, NY, USA
I once got 'told off' by a security guard for being 6 inches under the taxi cover at Waterloo and smoking. Apparently, I'm a health risk to others, but the 15 stationary taxis with the engines running and pumping out fumes and particulates weren't!
This is obviously the thin end of the wedge, and soom people will be banned from smoking in their own cars, in their own homes etc.
- George, London
Because the air in New York is so clean and unpolluted anyway...
I can understand resturants and bars, clubs and public buildings, but this really is taking it too far. Let people smoke if they want to, in their homes or in parks they help, with their taxes, maintain. Bloomberg really does need to 'butt' out of peoples personal choices and freedoms.
Anti smokers please, begin your tirade.
- S-M Hearmon, London, UK
This truly is the era of the health fascists...
- Fraser, yorkshire
