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Tobacco Reduction: Smoke-free Public Spaces and Parks

Categories:

  • Tobacco reduction,
  • Physical environment,
  • Facilities & organizations,
  • Healthcare facilities,
  • Workplace,
  • Community,
  • Schools,

Smoke-free public spaces and parks

Research shows that tobacco use is a leading cause of preventable disease and death in Canada. In 2015, approximately 2,780 new cancers diagnosed in Alberta were linked to tobacco smoking.1 Tobacco smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals with at least 172 of these being toxic and 69 known to cause cancer.2 Tobacco is the only consumer product that will kill at least one in two regular users when used as it’s intended to be used.3

A new law in Medicine Hat laws prohibit smoking in outdoor public places such as recreation areas. The law was spearheaded by local high school students and restricts smoking within 10 meters of public fields, paths, playgrounds and beaches.

Ways to get started

  • Communities can develop bylaws that go beyond provincial regulations. Encourage your local municipal leaders to create community-wide smoke-free outdoor public spaces. Contact other Alberta municipalities to see how they have developed their policies for smoke-free parks and other public spaces.
  • Create awareness or support for a potential bylaw that would designate parks and other public spaces as smoke free.4-6
  • Consider including other smoking substances, like vaping and cannabis, in the policies, regulations, or bylaw.

For further action to reduce tobacco use in the community, see

Multi-component community-wide interventions that increase awareness about and provide opportunities to reduce tobacco use in your community will have greater impact than implementing one-off strategies.

Evaluation measures the impact of all the hard work that went into developing a community initiative. Evaluating impact examines:

  1. What you expect to learn or change
  2. What you measure and report
  3. How to measure impact

What you expect to learn about smoke-free public spaces and parks may include:

  • Increased policies that regulate smoking in public spaces
  • Reduced smoking in public spaces

 References - Smoke free public spaces and parks

  1. Poirier AE, Ruan Y, Grevers X, Walter SD, Villeneuve PJ, Friedenreich CM, Brenner DR. Estimates of the current and future burden of cancer attributable to active and passive tobacco smoking in Canada. Preventive Medicine. 2019;122:9-19.
  2. United States Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS). (2010). How tobacco smoke causes disease: The biology and behavioral basis for smoking-attributable disease: A report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: Author. Accessed at: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/2010/
  3. Els, C. (2009). Tobacco addiction: What do we know, and where do we go? Accessed at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237260617_Tobacco_Addiction_What_do_we_know _and_where_do_we_go
  4. Health Canada. Looking Forward: The Future of Federal Tobacco Control. Government of Canada. 2011.
  5. Malas M, van der Tempel J, Schwartz R, Minichiello A, Lightfoot C, Noormohamed A, et al. Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation: A systematic review. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. 2016;18(10):1926-1936. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntw119.
  6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, (CDC). Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health. 2014.