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Queenstown soon partly smoke free 

Playgrounds and swimming pools in the Queenstown Lakes  District may soon be smoke-free – but not sports fields.

The  Queenstown Lakes District Council's community services committee yesterday  decided to recommend to full council an education-based, smoke-free policy for  playgrounds and swimming pools.
 
However, it decided against  declaring sports fields as smoke free.
 
Cr Chris Blackford said  it would be draconian to ban smoking from sports fields.  

"If you  look at this sensibly, a huge part of the revenue from the events centre comes  from social functions. People go along and drink and want to have a smoke," he  said.
 
It would be unenforceable to stop people from enjoying a  cigarette while watching a football or cricket game and while there would be  public support for a ban in playgrounds, there would not be any for a ban on  sports fields, Mr Blackford said.
 
"It would be so abused that  we'd be open to ridicule," he said.
 
Cr Kathy Neal said she was  thinking about parents watching children's sports and there was something  obviously wrong if people could not refrain from smoking for the duration of a  sports match.
 
Parks assistant Phillipa Tsukigawa said the  purpose of the smoke-free policy was to de-normalise smoking so that children  did not see adults with cigarettes.
 
She said it would be  preferable to review the policy later.
 
The policy comes after  Wakatipu Youth Council representative Hanna Smeaton presented a submission to  the committee in September, asking the council to consider it. 
 
Ms Tsukigawa's report says a Cancer Society survey found  two-thirds of New Zealanders support smoke-free children's areas. 
 
Several councils in Australia and New Zealand have adopted  similar policies. Major sporting venues in Australia including Stadium  Australia, Telstra Dome, the MCG, WACA and ANZ Stadium are now smoke free, in  an effort to make them more family friendly, the report  says.

Source: Andrea Deuchrass, 'Queenstown soon partly smoke free', Southland Times, November 2, 2006.

Youth push to ban smoking in playgrounds 

QUEENSTOWN: Smoking will be banned from parks, reserves and-playgrounds in the Queenstown Lakes District, if the Wakatipu Youth Council has its way.   Representative Hannah Smeaton, a Wakatipu High School pupil, made a plea to the Queenstown Lakes District Council's community services committee yesterday to make the public areas smoke-free. 

Miss Smeaton said it was an ideal time to introduce the initiative, in conjunction with the recently announced upgrade of the district's playgrounds.

Other "progressive" local authorities were already introducing the initiative, to "protect children".   It would also make smoking less visible to young people`"and " denormalise" the habit, Miss Smeaton said.   She spoke during the public forum of the meeting, meaning committee members were unable to respond to the proposal.

Source: Jessica Maddock, Youth push to ban smoking in playgrounds, Otago Daily Times, Thursday, 07 September 2006, p. 2