Public ‘no smoking’ areas growing

If you got ‘em, don’t smoke ‘em — not in dozens of New Jersey parks, that is. Numbers continue climbing of municipalities that are banning smoking all of their parks, recreational areas, adjacent parking lots and sidewalks.

Jerry DeMarco

07/21/2010 12:19 p.m.

So if you need to grab a smoke during your kid’s game, you’d best be ready to hustle a good distance and then back, by which point your lungs should be shutting down and medics are being alerted.

Because these towns have insisted they will no longer be enablers.

Last week, town fathers and mothers of Bill Bradley’s home of Denville enacted a measure banning lit cigarettes from municipally-owned public spaces.

In Denville, a person convicted of breaking the new law faces a fine of up to $100 or two days of community service. A third offense could bring a $500 fine and 10 days of community service or jail time.

Jerry DeMarco Publisher/Editor

Bergen County was joined by its counterparts in Union last month in a plan that bans smoking in all county-owned public spaces. Bergen was one of the trailblazers (no pun intended) in 2004.

Here’s the point where the folks not thrilled with the idea have their say. Better to break it off and let readers weigh in.

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