OLD ORCHARD BEACH, Maine — Visitors to the beach will now be greeted by a sign asking them to extinguish their cigarettes before heading out to the sand.
The town council passed a resolution in November asking people not to smoke or use other tobacco products on the beach, and making the beach a voluntary smoke-free zone.
The resolutions came after discussions regarding a suggested ordinance proposed by four local students: Hattie Simon, MaryKate Slattery, Sarah Jenkins and Sabryna Deschaies. As eighth-grade students in 2009, the four girls received a grant after attending the annual Anti-Tobacco Youth Summit sponsored by the Maine Youth Action Network.
Wednesday afternoon, signs asking beachgoers “Please Do Not Use Tobacco Products on our Beach,” in both English and French, were put in place in front of walkways to the beach.
“I’m so proud of our group and everyone who helped make this possible,” Simon said Wednesday afternoon, standing beside a new sign at the end of Union Avenue.
“I’m on the beach every day in the summer and a lot in the winter,” Simon said.
She said smoking on the beach is a health issue and an environmental concern, as it causes secondhand smoke and litter of cigarette butts.
“I think over time it will become a cleaner and more family-friendly beach,” she said.
William Paterson, project director with Coastal Healthy Communities Coalition, said there are about 60 signs now in place, and the goal is to have a total of 80. The signs have been paid for by the Coastal Healthy Communities Coalition through the Fund for Healthy Maine, as well as grant money the four teens received. Funds are currently being sought for educational material and additional signs.
Paterson said that Huntington Beach in California, which has a no-smoking policy in place, has attracted more visitors after it became smoke-free, and he said he believes it will happen in Old Orchard Beach as well.
Other beaches in Maine that have tobacco-free policies include South Portland, Biddeford, Scarborough, Portland, York and Ogunquit.
Simon said she will be working to help establish a no-smoking on the beach policy in Kittery as well. Simon is the recipient of the 2012 Eastern Regional Youth Advocate of the Year Award by The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
She will receive a $2,500 scholarship and a $500 grant from the campaign and will attend the Youth Advocates of the Year Awards Gala at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel on May 17 in Washington, D.C.
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Great job Hattie and others who’s combined effort will make for a more pleasant experience on the beach!
I remember when I was real little, OOB was a nice family place to go. But by the time I was in high school, it was a dump you wanted to avoid. It’s good to see there are folks (young folks, especially) working hard to turn that around!
Some people have quit smoking because it became so difficult during work hours. Perhaps some die hard beach lovers will finally quit because of this measure.
it is VOLUNTARY….chances are they will still smoke.
Like anything new, it may take a little while, but it’s a start.
Will there be a weight limit to wearing a thong or speedo also.
Only if you smoke non-filtered camels cigarettes.
What is wrong with an overweight person in a thong or speedo?
I was hoping there wasn’t a limit. (-;
Vacation on some of the Eastern Carrabean Islands with some European folks and you’ll wish they were wearing a speedo or thong.
No doubt tobacco smoking is bad for your health. However, an ashtray will take care of butts, and out in the open another`s cigarette smoke can hardly bother anyone.
( I smoked my last cigarette 20 months ago, after being a slave for 55 years. Quitting is no easy matter. Being bedridden in hospital was what helped me off the hook.)
Most beaches have butt cans or garbage cans but smokers pay no never mind. Smoke travels a ways out in the open like that. I am an ex smoker and I can’t stand the smell of smoke, especially when I am outside trying to enjoy nature.
I love it. For years you blatantly disregarded other peoples health and their “right” to enjoy nature, but now that you have “evolved” your against it.
I actually, seldom, if ever smoked near anyone but other smokers. I never smoked in my house. My children never saw me smoke. I did not smoke in public places.
So, all smokers bring an ashtray to the beach? And empty it themselves in an approptaite place? Or do you do that for them?
LOL… I hope the signs have a “Pigeon ” French interpretation on them.
Way to go,young ladies-this is an important health issue.You are doing a great service for your community,and your parents should be very proud of you…
the beach in front of my home on one of the islands in casco bay i own( so says my deed) enjoy my cigar smoke or leave
OK for a private beach, not so for public (do this at home–only).
I believe that things like this are heading us down a dangerous path! Every time someone try’s to take away any freedom whether it be big or small is a dangerous thing. But with that being said I also do not like smokers who feel the need that everyone needs to have some of their smoke. They do have the freedom to smoke but I also have the freedom to have my lungs not filled with killer toxins. I think that there should be designated smoking spots for people who so choose to smoke not an outright ban.
Nothing irritates me more than walking into a smoke cloud as I try to enter some place. It seems like if it is a non smoking building smokers seem to stand right by the entry and exits and I believe it is a problem that needs to be fixed. I think it is more of a moral issue than anything else. Me first mentality. Think of others and bans wouldn’t have to happen. Be a thoughtful smoker!
I think they better add some in Spanish before the ACLU hits them with a law suit.
Will there also be a ban on drinking alcohol products or on having glass containers on the beach? I would think either of those would actually pose far more of a risk to “the children” than the possibility of a rare wisp of enormously diluted smoke from a few burning leaves. And if there’s already a ban on such things, will there be an equivalent number of signs put up about them?
You’ll notice this initiative wasn’t spurred by funding seeking to reduce litter or make beaches more attractive: it comes from an antismoking fund base and is simply specifically designed to be another step in targeting and marginalizing (denormalizing as they now sometimes put it) smokers. Ask where the funding comes from in the final analysis and you’ll probably track it back to either tax money being used to persecute smokers or Big Pharma money used to increase the demand for their NicoGummyPatchyProducts.
Things aren’t always as simple and sweet as they’re made out to be.
Michael J. McFadden
Author of “Dissecting Antismokers’ Brains”
Hope you had a good time with your dissection. Now, for a dissection of smokers brains as well as those of their advocates.
Wise move.
I noticed several commenters talking about the problem of butts on the beaches. I don’t know how it is in Maine, but in California that argument was being heavily used to justify expanding beach bans. Unfortunately for the banners some researchers discovered that a lot of the recently increasing butt-litter that was being blamed on beach smokers was actually being washed up on beaches from storm drain overflows. The increased butt-litter was actually being caused by California’s ban on smoking in bars, restaurants, and workplaces as smokers littered their butts on sidewalks which then got washed down the sewers and out to sea… and then floated back in.
Oddly enough, the antismoking Congressman, (I think his name was Yee?), never responded to my email suggesting that — if he was truly as concerned about the beach butt litter as he claimed to be — that the best solution would be to amend the smoking ban so smokers would move back inside and use ashtrays.
– MJM