Barnstable eyeing smoke-free beaches
Town board backs idea, spurred by citizen complaints
At the urging of beachgoers bothered by cigarette butts and after a letter from a local doctor worried about secondhand smoke, Barnstable officials may ban smoking on the town's beaches.
"We felt the town should look further into the issue and not just ignore it," said Clyde Takala, chairman of the town's Recreation Commission, which two weeks ago submitted a recommendation to Town Manager John Klimm to ban smoking on Barnstable's 16 beaches.
The commission's recommendation follows ordinances passed in Abington, Sharon, and Tyngsborough to ban smoking on their freshwater beaches, said Donna Rheaume, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Health.
Towns are not required to report smoking ordinances, but "as far as we're aware, Barnstable would be the first to pass a smoke-free ocean beach ordinance" in Massachusetts, she said yesterday. The only statewide ban on smoking, she added, is the Smoke-free Workplace Law, which took effect in 2004.
Barnstable residents have complained for years about cigarette butts littering shores, Takala said yesterday. This spring, the Recreation Division sent a survey to everyone who purchased beach stickers last year.
The most complaints, he said, were about the butts.
"There were a number about little children playing in the beach, and next thing you know, they come back and have cigarette butts in their hand," he said. "There were a few comments about smoke and smelling, but mainly it was the disposal."
The concerns about smoke came in a letter from Timothy W. Herrick, a pulmonary physician at Cape Cod Hospital. His daughter, a lifeguard in Barnstable, is often asked about the smoking policy on town beaches, he said.
"People seemed truly astonished that playing ball was prohibited but smoking within a few feet of young children or even pregnant women was permissible," Herrick said in the letter, which Takala cited in the commission's recommendation to the town manager.
While smoke may not seem as harmful outside, Herrick said, it is still dangerous, especially for people with chronic respiratory conditions.
"I'd be hard pressed to say here's the literature, and here's the data, but when you look at the way people pack in close together on the beaches . . . cigarette smoke carries quite a ways outdoors," Herrick said yesterday.
Barnstable already bans smoking on public school grounds, Takala said. Herrick considers the ban at town beaches a "natural extension" of that ban, as well as other bans nationwide. Communities in states including California, Florida, and Rhode Island have enacted or proposed smoking bans along their shores.
Opponents have already emerged. Takala said he received a number of calls yesterday from irate smokers, complaining that the town was "getting into their livelihood."
And though the six members of the Recreation Commission who voted on the recommendation passed it unanimously, Takala said they did not address logistical concerns, the biggest being enforcement.
"That's a tough one," he said.
Takala said Barnstable does not have the staff to monitor smokers on each of its 16 beaches.
Lifeguards could not enforce a ban either, "with everything else they have to do," he said. "Their primary concern is saving people's lives."
The Recreation Commission left questions of enforcement for Klimm, the town manager, to consider, Takala said. The Globe could not reach Klimm yesterday for comment.
Takala said he believed Klimm will hold a public meeting before deciding whether to enact the ban.
Maddie Hanna can be reached at mhanna@globe.com. 