Jersey Town’s Outdoor Smoking Ban

We have come a long way since people started voicing their displeasure with public smoking. I still laugh out loud when I watch old videos or television shows where a person is shown smoking in certain places.

People casually having a cigar or cigarette in a hospital, on an airplane, or in a school seems so shocking yet funny to see. You see it in TV shows like Mad Men or Columbo, and movies like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest or A Complete Unknown.

My biggest regret in life is that I was once a cigarette smoker. I would burn down Marlboros for about ten years from my late teens to my late twenties. While most ex-smokers are angered by smokers, I sympathize with them. I feel bad that they’re so hated a treated poorly because of their habit.

Many people don’t realize how much a smoke-filled restaurant or store once was acceptable, and still is in casinos. I think banning smoking indoors was and is a good idea, but what about outdoors?

What you may not know is that New Brunswick, New Jersey, didn't just ban smoking in indoor locations. Surprisingly, they banned it in outdoor areas as well.

According to New Brunswick Today, smoking of any kind was banned in New Brunswick. This includes “any open space, park, or recreation area.”

The ordinance includes “vehicles owned or leased by the City of New Brunswick." It also includes "city-sponsored public events such as farmers’ markets, concerts, parades, festivals, carnivals, and car shows.” It’s been in effect for about three months.

This is an aggressive attempt to prevent people from spreading their secondhand smoke just about anywhere in the city. Until the law was passed, smokers could just step outside to catch a quick smoke.

Those who smoke outdoors, may have to pay a minimum fine of $250 or as much as $1000. Signs have been posted to help prevent smoking in the banned areas.

No one has yet been fined since the law was passed by New Brunswick City Council and signed by Mayor James Cahill last year.