West Valley City eyes park smoking ban

WEST VALLEY CITY — It soon may be illegal to light up at a West Valley park.

The West Valley City Council is considering an outdoor smoking ban for all city-owned parks and recreational areas, such as baseball/softball diamonds, soccer fields, bleachers surrounding the fields and city trails.

The City Council expressed support for the proposed ban during a work session Tuesday, saying it would be in the best interest of the health, safety and welfare of West Valley residents.

The City Council recommended that a public hearing be held before it votes on the ban. A date for the hearing has not been set.

"I anticipate that if we have a public hearing, (residents) would demand (a smoking ban)," Mayor Dennis J. Nordfelt said.

Several Utah cities have adopted similar bans in the past year, including Salt Lake City, Sandy, South Jordan, Tooele and Logan. In recent months, city councils in Murray and Herriman voted to ban smoking in city parks and recreational areas, and the Davis County Board of Health enacted a countywide ban effective Jan. 1, 2008. In 2003, Clinton became the first Utah city to impose an outdoor smoking ban.

Lena Dibble, spokeswoman with the Utah Department of Health's Tobacco Prevention and Control program, said such bans are being enacted throughout the nation, not just in Utah.

"I think it's a sensible and logical response to all of the information we're getting about secondhand smoke," Dibble said.

Last year, the surgeon general released a report on secondhand smoke, saying "there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke." According to the report, secondhand smoke poses a "serious health hazard that causes premature death and disease in children and nonsmoking adults."

"I think these sorts of policies are a response to that," Dibble said. "Frankly, it's a very responsible (action) in terms of keeping residents safe."

West Valley City staff analyzed smoking bans in other cities and concluded that residents would benefit from prohibiting smoking in parks and recreational areas.

Smoking would still be allowed at the city's two golf courses, Stonebridge and West Ridge, because at most there are four players at each hole at any given time. Nonsmokers are not likely affected by smokers playing at holes ahead of them or behind them, city officials said.

If the ordinance is passed, no-smoking signs will be placed at parks and recreational areas. The penalty for breaking the no-smoking law likely would be a class B misdemeanor, which carries a fine of up to $1,000, city officials said.

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