"Smoke Free Parks"

Good on you the Christchurch City Council for passing legislation that if not deters, shames people into not smoking in public parks and sports fields.

It's an awful sight seeing people surrounding a childrens sporting event smoking. Sporting events show fitness and healthy well being, smoking on the other hand is an advertisement for serious illness like cancer and a reminder to many of how relatives may have died. Not really befitting with sporting events or childrens playgrounds.

Not too long ago I attended the Oranga Healthy Lifestyles Maori Netball Championships in Hamilton. The teams ranged from under 13s to premier womens. The event was advertised as a smokefree event and the big smokefree banners were everywhere. Still there were parents and watchers on the sidelines smoking, wandering around with ciggerettes hanging out of their mouths. What is wrong with these people. Do you have no respect for such events. Is a ciggerette addiction that bad that you can't walk a couple of hundred meters to the outside of the event to have your little moment of death inhalation.

The CCC's decision to publicly frown upon smoking in parks and at CCC run events is a welcome initiative that should be taken up by all councils and even passed by parliment as an enforceble law. I know that it would be very hard to police this as a fineable offence but just knowing that it is a fineable offence may help in detering the smoking at events such as the above mentioned.

To be perfectly honest, I would like to see smoking outlawed all together, and yes, I am a reformed smoker who smoked for 20 years. Unfortunately that would only bring it's own share of problems such as tobacco escalating on the black market, just another substance perhaps for some gangs and criminals to profit from. And of course less money going into the governments coffers.

In this society pressure on people is harsh enough without adding to it with health issues that were caused by people's own foolish choice's to smoke what they know is on of the most lethal substances to mankind. I mean 'come on', we all want what is best for our children,and, smoking at their playgrounds at their sports matches at public events where there are children is not giving them the message that this smelly, unsociable people killing habit is not cool. It used to be cool but now its just not.

So to all you smokers out there that have a total disregard for anybody elses health the noose is tightening. Yes the majority of smokers are respectful these days but to the few who just dont care be prepared to be shamed by people who have just had enough of being forced to breath in your dirty second hand smoke.