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SALT LAKE CITY ORDINANCE
No. 81 of 2006
(No Smoking in City Parks, Recreational Areas, and Cemeteries, and Near Mass Gatherings)
AN ORDINANCE ENACTING CHAPTER 15.30 OF THE SALT LAKE CITY CODE, PROHIBITING SMOKING IN CITY PARKS, RECREATIONAL AREAS, AND CEMETERIES, AND NEAR MASS GATHERINGS.
WHEREAS, Salt Lake City Corporation (the “City”) has authority to protect the public health, welfare, and sanitation; and
WHEREAS, based on the findings of the Utah Legislature in Utah Code Section 78-38-.5, the City hereby finds that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined that environmental tobacco smoke is a Group A carcinogen, in the same category as other cancer causing chemicals such as asbestos; and
WHEREAS, the EPA has determined that there is no acceptable level of exposure to Class A carcinogens; and
WHEREAS, the United States Surgeon General has determined that the scientific evidence indicates that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke; and
WHEREAS, reliable studies have shown that breathing side stream or secondhand smoke is a significant health hazard, in particular for elderly people, individuals with cardiovascular disease, and individuals with impaired respiratory function, including asthmatics and those with obstructive airway disease; and
WHEREAS, the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires that disabled persons have access to public places and work places, deems impaired respiratory function to be a disability; and
WHEREAS, the 2004 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey indicates that 87% of Salt Lake County residents would support smoking restrictions at parks; and
WHEREAS, cigarette butts are not biodegradable and discarding cigarette butts and tobacco onto the ground in places such as city parks, recreational areas, and cemeteries, and at the locations of mass gatherings is unsightly, unclean, and particularly hazardous to small children and animals who handle and sometimes ingest them, which can lead to serious health effects; and
WHEREAS, littering in city parks and near mass gatherings, including littering of cigarette butts, shall not be tolerated; and
WHEREAS, smoke free parks are important for the health of children and adults; and
WHEREAS, because children imitate adult behavior, the elimination of smoking in places such as city parks, recreational areas, and cemeteries, and near mass gatherings furthers the goal of reducing youth smoking; and
WHEREAS, the Salt Lake Valley Board of Health, as a policy-making body designated by statute to protect the public’s health, has deemed it prudent, reasonable, and necessary to support, advocate, and urge that municipal legislative bodies in Salt Lake County adopt an ordinance: (1) protecting the public health and welfare by prohibiting smoking in public parks, gathering places, recreational areas, and plazas; and (2) guaranteeing the right of nonsmokers to breathe smoke-free air, and to recognize that the need to breathe smoke free air shall have priority over the desire to smoke; and
WHEREAS, the City finds that the prohibition of smoking in the City’s parks, recreational facilities, and cemeteries, and near mass gatherings serves to protect the health, safety, and welfare of persons in the City.
NOW, THEREFORE, be it ordained by the City Council of Salt Lake City, Utah:
SECTION 1. That Chapter 15.30, Salt Lake City Code, be, and the same hereby is, enacted to read as follows:
Chapter 15.30 Smoking Prohibited in City Parks, Recreational Areas, and Cemeteries, and Near Mass Gatherings
15.30.010. Definitions
A. “City park” means and includes city-owned parks, public squares, ball diamonds, golf courses, soccer fields, and other recreation areas, Library Square, city-owned cemeteries and trails, but not designated smoking areas specified by the city.
B. “Mass gathering” means an outdoor assembly of 100 or more people on city-owned property that reasonably can be expected to continue for two or more hours.
C. “Smoke” or “smoking” means and includes: possession, carrying, or holding a lighted pipe, cigar, or cigarette of any kind, or any other lighted smoking equipment, or the lighting or emitting or exhaling of smoke of a pipe, cigar, or cigarette or any kind, or of any other lighted smoking equipment.
15.30.020. Prohibitions
Smoking is hereby prohibited in city parks, light-rail train stations, within twenty-five (25) feet of bus stops, and within fifty (50) feet of mass gatherings. A violation of this ordinance is an infraction punishable by a fine not to exceed twenty-five dollars ($25.00) but not by imprisonment. Police officers shall have the discretion to issue a “warning” if they deem it is in the best interests of the city for the first offense.
15.30.030. Exceptions
A. American Indian/Alaska Native Ceremonies
1. A person is exempt from
the restrictions of this chapter if the person:
a.
Is a member of an American Indian/Alaska Native tribe whose members are
recognized as eligible for the special programs and services provided by the
United States to American Indians/Alaska Natives who are members of those
tribes;
b. Is an American
Indian/Alaska Native who actively practices an American Indian/Alaska Native
religion, the origin and interpretation of which is from a traditional American
Indian/Alaska Native culture;
c.
Is smoking tobacco using the traditional pipe of an American Indian/Alaska
Native tribal religious ceremony, of which tribe the person is a member, and is
smoking the pipe as part of that ceremony;
and
d. The ceremony is conducted
by a pipe carrier, American Indian/Alaska Native spiritual person, or medicine
person recognized by the tribe of which the person is a member and by the
American Indian/Alaska Native community.
2. A religious ceremony
using a traditional pipe under this section is subject to any applicable state
or local law, except as provided in this section.
B. First Amendment Activities
A person is exempt from the restrictions of this chapter if the person is smoking or using smoking materials to exercise protected First Amendment activity, such as smoking or use of materials for bona fide religious purposes.
15.30.040. Posting of Signs
“No smoking” signs or the international “No Smoking” symbol (consisting of a pictorial representation of a burning cigarette enclosed in a red circle with a red bar across it) shall be clearly and conspicuously posted in every city park.
SECTION 2. EFFECTIVE DATE. That this Ordinance shall take effect on the date of its first publication.
Passed by the City Council of Salt Lake City, Utah, this 14th day of November, 2006.
Bill No. 81 of 2006
Published: December 2, 2006.