By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — The town is joining the ranks of many Connecticut municipalities by prohibiting smoking and vaping at municipal beaches, athletic fields and courts, playgrounds and more.

Four out of five parks and recreation agencies nationwide already ban tobacco, Parks and Recreation Director Jennifer Fava told the Board of Selectwomen on Wednesday. Parks and recreation officials in area communities with a similar ban, such as Fairfield, Darien and Branford, report they “did not have much pushback” when they imposed the prohibition, she said.

“We started thinking about this before COVID hit — it was just tobacco at that point,” she said. “Since then we’ve continued to receive complaints about second-hand smoke from both tobacco and, more recently, cannabis, particularly at beaches.”

Most of the complaints arise in areas “where it would really impact children,” Fava said, such as beaches, pools and playgrounds. “The real purpose of this is to protect people, especially children, from second-hand smoke.”

In addition to protecting people from harmful health effects, the policy aims to curb environmental problems that unsightly cigarette butts and discarded trash can cause to wildlife, she said.

The town’s Parks and Recreation Department regulations already prohibit smoking in many areas where children are more likely to be found, such as pools and playgrounds. But the new regulation will encompass additional town-owned facilities, including some parking lots, as well as recreational areas. It reads, in part:

“Smoking or vaping any cannabis-type substance or tobacco product is prohibited within the boundary of all Town-owned athletic fields, courts, playgrounds, pools, beaches, including but not limited to, concession areas, beach parking lots, and athletic field parking lots. In addition, smoking or vaping any cannabis-type substance or tobacco product is prohibited within 25 feet of all Town-owned athletic fields, courts, playgrounds, and pools.” 

The regulation will be enforced by Parks and Recreation Department personnel, Fava said, and police won’t be called unless the rule-breaker resists complying with the rules, she said.

The regulation also includes a 25-foot boundary around the recreational facilities that fall under the ban to make it easier for staff to manage supervision of parking lots and abutting areas, and to better protect children and others from drifting smoke.

The new rules do not completely ban smoking at all town parks, and apply only to the recreational facilities and amenities designated in the policy.

During a previous discussion of the policy by the Parks and Recreation Commission, Fava gave an example of how the rules would apply to a park like Longshore, where smoking would still be permitted on the golf course, but not at the pool and sports courts. The policy would not apply at all to Winslow or Riverside parks, she said.

There were no comments from the public on the proposed smoking regulation at the selectwomen’s meeting, as was the case when the Parks and Recreation Commission endorsed the policy unanimously June 21.

The Board of Selectwomen, in giving final approval to the policy, also voted unanimously in favor.

Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist and journalism teacher for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman newspaper for 10 years and teaches journalism at Southern Connecticut State University.