City adds no-smoking zones

Maumelle includes e-cigarettes in bans at playgrounds

Smoking tobacco products and the use of electronic cigarettes won't be allowed within 20 feet from stationary playground equipment or a splash pad in Maumelle's city parks, the Maumelle City Council agreed Monday night.

The new restrictions that amend existing Maumelle City Code will also prohibit the use of e-cigarettes at the city's baseball complex, soccer complex and aquatic center, where smoking tobacco is already prohibited.

City aldermen approved the legislation 7-0. Alderman Jess Holt was absent. The new rules will take effect in 30 days.

The amendment will also double the fine for each violation to $50.

City Alderman Rick Anderson, who sponsored the resolution, said the action resulted from adults smoking at a playground at the city's Lake Willastein Park when he was with his 4-year-old child. Smoking is allowed at that city park, but Anderson said it bothered him that young children were being exposed to secondhand smoke.

"I was at the toddler playground, and people were smoking all around the kids," Anderson said. "You would think people would have some common sense and not be smoking around children. Smoke was going in kids' faces."

E-cigarettes that use liquid nicotine were included to update the existing law, he said.

E-cigarettes have been marketed as a safer alternative to cigarettes, but last month the federal Food and Drug Administration issued new rules for e-cigarettes that ban their sale to anyone under 18 years of age and require a photo identification from anyone under 26 years old wanting to buy e-cigarettes. In the past five years, there has been a significant increase in the use of e-cigarettes among middle school and high school students, according to national studies.

"We saw this as an opportunity to do it all in one amendment," Anderson said of adding the restrictions on e-cigarettes, along with establishing the 20-foot barrier for smoking near public playground equipment.

The revised city code will prohibit smoking tobacco or using e-cigarettes outdoors within the Maumelle Diamond Center Baseball Complex, the Rolling Oaks Soccer Complex and the Maumelle Aquatics Center. The restrictions don't include the parking lots of the listed parks or facilities.

Metro on 06/07/2016

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