Nutter bans smoking at recreation centers

Having a smoke at a city playground or pool could get you kicked off the property starting July 1, when an executive order banning smoking at more than 200 recreational centers takes effect.

Mayor Nutter signed the order Monday at the Kingsessing Recreation Center.

The latest ban extends the Nutter administration's efforts to reduce smoking among Philadelphia residents, especially adolescents and teenagers.

"We must send kids a consistent message that smoking is unsafe, uncool, and un-powerful," City Health Commissioner Donald Schwarz said. "Smoking leads to nearly 2,500 deaths per year in Philadelphia. This is more deaths than those caused by homicide, HIV, diabetes, kidney failure, and stroke combined."

Because the ban was accomplished via executive order and not through legislation, it is a policy and not a law. That means it comes with no penalties, but the city will post signs at all recreation centers, pools, and playgrounds telling people they cannot smoke - indoors or outdoors.

Schwarz and Nutter said they expected the signs to encourage recreation department employees and visitors to tell people they cannot smoke on the premises.

"Young people and staff will exert a fair amount of peer pressure to get people to comply," Nutter said.

The city already bans smoking inside its offices, but the recreation center executive order applies the ban to outside spaces as well. Nutter said he had not considered whether he would eventually extend the ban to large outdoor spaces such as Fairmount Park.

Late last year, Nutter signed an ordinance that raised the penalty for selling tobacco to minors from $100 to $250 per incident to try to reduce the city's high rate of smoking among young people.

As a member of City Council, Nutter pushed through a ban on smoking in restaurants.

Philadelphia's move follows New York's. On Monday, it became illegal to smoke outdoors in many parts of New York, including Times Square. New York's ban, however, comes with a $50 penalty.

Children from the Alexander Wilson School flanked Nutter as he announced the upcoming ban.

One of them, Quimon Broady, asked the mayor: "If we don't want kids to smoke, why do we sell cigarettes in the first place?"

Nutter responded that he did not know the answer but had been wondering the same thing himself.