parks

Handsel Art

Date: 15 March 2008

For Immediate Release

Contact: J.R. Few at

(870) 427-1365 or email

Tobacco Free Park Efforts Improved

Advocates for tobacco free public parks have improved their capacity for action with a new website at www.smokefreeparks.com . Pulaski County activist Joe Arnold notes a guarded optimism, “It looks like our parks system will join hundreds of others in becoming tobacco free. The big issue is whether people with breathing disabilities will be able to attend Riverfest this year. “

Research has shown that exposure to secondhand smoke poses risk even outside. Over 900 cities around the nation have tobacco free policies for local parks.

“Smoke is not the least of what accommodating the tobacco cartel in public is all about.” Says media coordinator for Tobacco-Free Marion County, J.R. Few, “Cigarette litter, like smoking, is overlooked as an individual’s issue, ignoring those who actually profit from public tobacco use. “

Marlboro manufacturer Phillip Morris is a major funding source for Keep America Beautiful; a national group known for organizing volunteer litter clean up and adding public trash/butt receptacles.

Mountain Home city parks have been legislated tobacco free since 2006.

Baxter County Tobacco Control Committee coordinator Bonnie Brandsgaard adds, “Big tobacco loses money when tobacco use isn’t seen as a normal part of the day. We don’t have to pay for that.”

Arnold asks citizens to contact www.arkansasriverfest.org and voice their support for a smoke free workplace and public space at Riverfront Park. Local efforts to normalize tobacco free park space can be directed toward the Baxter County Tobacco Control Committee at bctcc@windtream.net or Tobacco-Free Marion County at tfmc@marioncounty.com.

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Oregon visitor Aaron Pennington admires cigarette litter at a local beach last summer. “It’s embarrassing to bring your family home for a vacation and find more butts than pretty rocks at the lake,” says his father Alan. “’Not much natural about that.”

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