Riverfest Smoke Free?

In July of last year, after much ado and the hard work of many of us, City Manager Bruce Moore signed the Little Rock Parks Commission recommended policy that Little Rock City Parks be tobacco free. The policy went into effect in October.

Now as Riverfest approaches it is questionable if the organizers of the event are going to respect this policy or continue their subsidy for the tobacco industry at the expense of the community. A quick glance at the Riverfest website cites only Arkansas clean indoor air laws with no recognition of the Parks Commission’s tobacco free policy at all.

Will we once again suffer the drifting smoke, pay for collecting the cigarette litter, and finance the corporate welfare for a rogue industry? The organizers of Riverfest may not care about the community and the entertainers but I bet their sponsors do. You can find them here. Contact the city manager’s office too. Demand not merely simple courtesy but evidence based public health policies.

It’s your air and your music, don’t share any more of it with the tobacco industry.

Tobacco Free Spaces

I posted this on Globalink, so why not here, right?

I respectfully take issue with the perspective that tobacco free advocates are being “absolutist” about smoke free public space. Strict adherence to tobacco free space is simply consistent with what we know to be evidence based to effectively reduce tobacco use and nicotine adduction. Saying that outdoor tobacco policies need be “reasonable and fair” is little more than the accommodation argument the industry uses to delay clean indoor air in bars and restaurants. We are accommodating the tobacco industry not nicotine addicts. One reason that so many have quit using tobacco is because there have been regulations in place that make smoking less convenient; quitting easier. Enabling smokers is doing no one but those that profit from the sale and prevalence of nicotine a favor.

Are there limits to which we should regulate public nicotine addiction? Perhaps. But given the present almost unbelievable mortality and disease associated with the products the industry purveys that time is not yet here. We have evidence based incremental approaches to de-normalizing the tobacco pandemic: market reform, significant increases in the price, tobacco free space, and inclusive of the first three, support for cessation. Saying that regulating tobacco out of doors is unreasonable neglects the tragic subsidy we allow Big Tobacco when they foul our air, litter our public spaces, and prey on our youth.

Advocates should challenge the tobacco industry not collaborate. I see little reason to accommodate the tobacco industry. Communities have a justifiable and compelling interest in regulating rogue capitalists right out of town.