Oregon weighs beach smoking

SALEM – Oregon state park leaders considering a decision on whether to forbid smoking on coastal beaches say public comments were slightly in favor of a ban, a newspaper reported Friday.

The Parks and Recreation Department has held four hearings on the question, with comments in testimony and writing supporting a ban 178 to 165.

The smoking ban along the 362-mile coastline was proposed after Gov. John Kitzhaber told state agencies to examine ways to curb smoking on state property, and the department made rules sharply limiting smoking in state parks, the Salem Statesman Journal reported.

“While this isn’t a vote – and we take the quality of the comment into account as much as the difference in numbers, which in this case is very slight – the comments play a major role in the process,” department spokesman Chris Havel said.

A ban would reduce secondhand smoke and litter, supporters say.

“Even though you’re outdoors – and it might be really windy – the particulates from secondhand smoke are still in the air and can still impact people around it and downwind,” Havel said. “As litter, the material from cigarettes takes a very long time to break down. Wildlife ingest it, and it can cause biological damage.”

Opponents say it would be impossible to enforce a ban and would amount to an excessive use of power. They point out that it’s legal and popular to light campfires on beaches, and there’s no move to outlaw food or drinks that contribute to beach litter.

“Once we begin banning smoking on the beach, what will we ban next?” Theresa Roberts of Tillamook County wrote in a comment to the department. “Will that include campfires or dogs or anything that annoys one group of people?”