A Look at the Evidence Behind Outdoor Smoking Bans
I really detest this kind of thing. And this is far from the first time we have seem shady science to justify regulations or laws. I look at it like this-Lie to me about the science and I stop supporting your cause. Play it straight or stay home.
As to the pollution argument, well we still allow picnics, drinks, all manner of personal items on the beach. Maybe what beaches need is a place to throw the cig butts away that won’t start a trash fire.
“Our analysis of the evidence for these claims found it far from definitive and in some cases weak,” the researchers wrote. What they conclude is that what’s behind the bans is an effort to “denormalize” smoking as part of an overall public health campaign.
Basing policy on weak science “is hazardous for public health policymakers, for whom public trust is essential,” they wrote in the issue of the journal Health Affairs released Monday.
California leads the country in park and beach smoking bans, with 155 and 46, respectively, and it recorded the first outdoor smoking ban, in 1975 in Yolo County. By 2011, municipalities in all 50 states had passed bans in parks.
It’s interesting to note, the researchers say, that the American Lung Assn., the American Heart Assn. and the American Cancer Society greeted these bans “with indifference or outright skepticism.” They supported cigarette taxes, tobacco marketing controls and other measures.
