Tobacco-free parks on the docket

Daphne Mertens and Teresa Briggs, spokespeople for Healthier Lyon County, are now reaching out to community members to educate them on the dangers of secondhand smoke and the benefits of tobacco-free parks.

The group says tobacco-free policies for outdoor spaces just make sense. They cite the following reasons for the push for the tobacco-free policy:

Exposure to secondhand smoke is the third-leading cause of preventable death.

Tobacco-free policies in outdoor settings are part of a national trend that has been taking place for several years.

Tobacco-free policies help change community norms.

Tobacco-free policies enable leaders, parents and other adults to model healthier lifestyle choices.

Tobacco-free policies reduce tobacco litter.

Estimates indicate cigarette butts and tobacco-related items make up 38 percent of all litter, which leads to costly cleanup. Those clean-up costs would decrease with the implementation of tobacco-free policies. Members of Healthier Lyon County recently visited area parks and picked up cigarette butts — the amount of which littered the parks was shocking.

“When we decided to find out how big of a problem smoking was in our parks, we knew we would find some cigarette butts,” Mertens said. “We had no idea we would find this many.”

Healthier Lyon County explains cigarette butts are the most littered item in the world. Discarded cigarettes and other forms of tobacco are toxic, hazardous to the environment and costly to clean up. When washed into creeks and streams, tobacco waste is a toxic pollutant that does not decompose easily; it takes decades. Small children and animals are at risk of swallowing, choking or burning themselves with discarded butts and poisoning themselves with the drug nicotine.

“Tobacco waste makes parks and playgrounds look dirty and uninviting,” Mertens said. “Tobacco-free parks provide children with clean and healthy places to play.”

Exposure to secondhand smoke has been estimated to result in at least 38,000 annual deaths in the United States and over one million illnesses in children. Secondhand smoke contains more than 250 chemicals known to be toxic and cancer-causing. Even brief exposure can be dangerous.

Phillip Davis, CEO of Flint Hills Community Health Center and a member of Healhier Lyon County, supports the initiative to establish tobacco-free parks and playgrounds. He also said there is help available for anyone with a desire to stop smoking.

“Most people know and understand that secondhand smoke and tobacco use is dangerous,” Davis said. “We think children, families and other individuals who are trying to be healthy and active deserve tobacco-free parks in which to participate in these activities. Smoking has negative effects on a person’s whole health — medical, dental, mental health — and that’s why we have staff in every department doing what we can to help patients quit using tobacco when they’re ready to do so. We have compassionate providers who want to help and also know of a lot of other resources for people looking to quit. We want to help everyone in our community live a healthy, tobacco-free life.”

Healthier Lyon County regularly provides updates via Facebook at www.facebook.com/healthierlyoncounty/?hc_ref=SEARCH&fref=nf. For more information, call Mertens at 620-437-6096.

Tobacco litter facts

^ Every second, 142 cigarette butts are flicked out of a car window, thrown into the grass or stubbed out on sidewalks.

^ Discarded butts and materials are washed into drains, making their way into rivers and the ocean contaminating the water and killing wildlife. Those that are not washed into the waterways contaminate the soil.

^ Cigarette butts are not biodegradable. Sunlight may eventually break down the filters into smaller pieces but they never fully disappear. The chemicals remain in the environment.

^ There are more than 176,000,000 pounds of cigarette butts discarded in the U.S. each year. Cigarette butts are the most littered item on U.S. roadways, making up 38 percent of all littered items collected.

www.cigewaste.org