Tagged: Smoking Ban

Orange County's board of commissioners will discuss a county-wide ban on smoking in public places at its meeting tomorrow. The county's Board of Health voted last month to recommend that smoking be prohibited in areas beyond restaurants and bars. Pam Diggs with the Orange County Health Department says those areas would include places where people congregate for work, transit and recreation.

Beginning tomorrow, a Durham city ordinance will officially prohibit smoking on city and county grounds both inside and outside. County commissioners passed the ordinance in February. Eric Nickens is a spokesman for the Durham County Health Department.

  The budget on Governor Bev Perdue's desk would eliminate the Health and Wellness Trust Fund. And that has some public health experts worried. 

One of the Fund's best known programs is an aggressive teen anti-smoking campaign called Tobacco Reality Unfiltered, or T-R-U. The budget would allow for some of the fund's money to go to the department of health and human services which could create a similar program. 
But Doctor Adam Goldstein, from the tobacco prevention and evaluation program at UNC Chapel Hill says their research shows T-R-U has reached most of the kids in the state and makes a difference. 

Durham health officials want to ban smoking in a number of public places, including all county and city grounds, athletic fields, playgrounds, and bus stops. Gayle Harris is director of the Durham County Health Department.

The city of Raleigh is one step closer to banning smoking in public parks.

The City Council voted 6-to-2 to move towards a ban on smoking in city parks. The ban would apply to city parks like Pullen near NC State’s campus, but not to Moore and Nash Squares downtown, which are state parks.

Mayor Charles Meeker proposed the ban, saying it is a health and litter issue. The two council members who voted against it say it will be too difficult to enforce.

Raleigh will spend about $25,000 to put no smoking signs up at all city parks.