Council grounds now smoke-free

KIAMA Council has started a program to make all sports grounds in the municipality smoke-free this winter, tying in with this year's World No Tobacco Day theme of "smoke-free environments".

Tomorrow is World No Tobacco Day, an event created by the World Health Organisation 20 years ago to draw global attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable deaths and diseases it causes.

During the two decades, WHO has aimed to educate people about the dangers of using tobacco as well as how it is fighting the tobacco epidemic and what people everywhere can do to claim their right to health and healthy living and to protect future generations.

Kiama Council has been active in promoting various programs to reduce the impact smoking has on people's health and on the environment.

These included the Butt Free City campaign, under which the council has issued local businesses with materials encouraging people to dispose of their cigarette butts properly, installed bins for cigarette butts in a number of locations and distributed free personal butt containers.

The decision to make sporting grounds in the municipality smoke free follows a year-long trial at the Kiama Sports Complex.

"The aim of introducing the smoke free sporting grounds policy is to provide a clean and healthy environment for everyone," said Julie Errey, a council health and environment team leader.

"Passive smoke has been proven to be extremely harmful to our health and especially to that of children and as a result many councils have introduced similar policies."

Under the policy, smoking will be banned on and around all the council's sporting grounds and playing fields. Designated smoking areas have been identified near those sporting grounds.

"Members of the public who wish to smoke will have to walk only a short distance to ensure they are outside the smoke free zones," Ms Errey said.

The council has also put up signs around the sporting grounds to indicate the areas are smoke free.

The program also involves putting in place education strategies to inform people of the risks involved in smoking around sporting facilities and the effects of cigarette butt litter on the environment.