The Capital Regional District’s bylaw to promote clean air by regulating secondhand tobacco smoke will come into effect Wednesday, shortly after we celebrate our spectacular outdoors with the annual flower count. The CRD’s bylaw will ensure that in the future, in a host of ways, the environment in which this festive event takes place will be bloomin’ better.
Juxtaposed is another event that eloquently speaks to this bylaw’s role in prevention of a disease feared above others. The Ken Burns documentary Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies will be running on PBS stations for three consecutive nights, concluding on the day our bylaw comes into effect.
On Wednesday, the current regional prohibitions on indoor smoking in public spaces and workplaces and on outdoor patios will be augmented to include regional and community parks, beaches, public playgrounds, playing fields, public squares, school yards and transit shelters.
As well, smoking will be prohibited within seven metres of any doorway, window, or air intake and bus stop, increased from the provincially set three metres.
People will still be allowed to smoke in their private vehicles, tents or trailers while in a campsite; however, provincial law prohibits smoking in a vehicle with anyone under the age of 16 years.
In implementing these changes, both an extensive education program and a posting of signs will be undertaken, as has been done with previous amendments to our clean air bylaw. People who either smoke or permit smoking in these newly designated areas can be ticketed and fined up to $2,000.
The initial focus, as with any bylaw change, will continue to be on an educational, rather than confrontational, approach.
The CRD sits as our local board of health and is responsible for maintaining, promoting and preserving the public health of the inhabitants of the region. As stated in the preamble to the bylaw, the rationale for purposefully reducing exposures to tobacco smoke is that secondhand tobacco smoke has been designated a Class A carcinogen, similar to benzene and asbestos.
Scientific and medical communities have determined that no level of secondhand tobacco smoke exposure is safe. More recent scientific research has determined that outdoor areas where smoking occurs can result in a significant level of secondhand tobacco smoke exposure.
As with past improvements to the bylaw, this amendment enjoys not only the support of a knowledgeable non-smoking public but also a portion of smokers. Although 10 per cent of the local population still smokes tobacco, many of these individuals have a desire to quit. Making it more difficult to smoke as well as not being around people who are actively smoking increases the likelihood of quitting smoking.
Benefits accrue to not only those quitting smoking but also contribute to the sustainability of our universal medical system.
Reductions in exposure to secondhand smoke will directly benefit the public and especially vulnerable populations with breathing and other illnesses made worse by tobacco smoke. Further, the bylaw will encourage fitness by removing the impediment posed by exposure to tobacco smoke for anyone wanting to jog in our parks, walk on our beaches, attend our numerous festivals and events, or who are simply waiting for their bus to arrive.
Potential benefits to the health of children extend beyond smoke exposures; the bylaw will serve to decrease the negative role-modelling associated with tobacco consumption by eliminating smoking from many outdoor locations where children are present.
The bylaw also will serve to preserve the natural environment. Other jurisdictions have witnessed a decrease in a leading cause of beach and park litter — cigarette butts.
Cigarette butts are not biodegradable. They are made of plastic fibres and take years to break down.
Moreover, cigarette filters are specifically designed to capture toxins; each cigarette butt can contain up to 70 known cancer-causing compounds, all of which pollute both land and water. With observance of this bylaw, the number of toddlers, pets, birds, fish and other wildlife poisoned by discarded butts should be lessened.
Another dividend should be a reduction in the risk of fires in our region from discarded smoking materials.
By enacting this bylaw, the CRD will not only join scores of Canadian communities, including Tofino, Nanaimo, Duncan, Calgary, Ottawa, Vancouver and Toronto, but also hundreds of international centres such as London, Paris and New York in furthering the attractiveness and safety of their environs and the health of their populations.
Yasmeen Sadain and Graham Landells are co-presidents of the University of Victoria Youth Against Cancer Club. Dr. Richard Stanwick is the chief medical health officer for Island Health.
