Leading the field in anti-smoking regulations, Mosman City Council has banned smoking within 20 metres of dining areas on public land. Such smoking bans in public spaces have been already been in place in New York, Los Angeles, Ireland and Norway. Mosman Deputy Mayor, Andrew Brown, said Council was the first in Australia to take this step.
The Queensland State Government has also legislated to ban smoking near al fresco dining areas by 2006. Councillor Brown said smokers were not allowed to smoke inside restaurants and now external areas have been added.
In a separate development, the Local Government Association of NSW has demonstrated its support of smoking restrictions through a policy supporting bans around children’s playground equipment and sporting fields. Association President, Cr Dr Sara Murray, said that this recognises the disturbing statistics about the effects of passive smoking on children.
“The impact of passive smoking is just so great that our members wanted to take action,” she said. “The National Health and Medical Research Council has found that passive smoking is associated with an increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome, an increase in asthmatic symptoms in 46,500 Australian children each year, an increased risk of middle ear infection with ongoing health problems and an increased rate of children taking up smoking if a parent or carer is asmoker.
“Clearly, passive smoking is a major issue for our children. Councils are serious about taking measures to protect the health of their residents and taking steps to reduce the level of cigarette smoke children are exposed to was one thing we felt we could do to have a positive impact.
“Our conference last year voted overwhelmingly to support any council which chose to ban smoking around play equipment and sports fields and to ensure council run events were smoke free. Our policy also supports councils erecting signs advising that these areas and events are smoke free.”
The policy was adopted at the Local Government Association annual conference in Albury in November 2003. Several NSW councils have already banned smoking around play equipment and sports fields.
