Consortium short shrifts Louisiana
May 23, 2012
Mechanicville man looking to do the right thing
May 23, 2012
With nine children by her side, Gail Brigham, Adult Coordinator for the START Corporation of the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco Free Living presented a proposal to make Thibodaux parks smoke-free at a recent city council meeting.
“When cigarette butts are discarded in the environment, they go down drains, then to bayou and then to the ocean,” Brigham said. “They are not biodegradable. They are with us forever. There are 165 chemicals just in a cigarette butt.”
The students that accompanied Brigham for the presentation are members of campaign’s
Defy the Lies after-school program, and there are more than 15 students in local chapter. The nine present at the meeting are from Houma, New Orleans and Thibodaux.
“This year the local chapter was most interested in making parks and recreation in the area tobacco free,” Brigham said. “The group goes to summits, youth rallies in New Orleans and retreats. They travel frequently, and it’s lots of fun.”
The organization, which has members from ages 11 to 17, has six other start chapters in the state, and each group focuses on different anti-smoking issues.
“One of the other chapters is doing a Counter Pop campaign,” she said. “In convenience stores, cigarette ads are usually located at eye level for children. They work to get these stores to take down these ads or be considerate of youth at put them at higher levels.”
In May of 2010, the local chapter and 20 other START volunteers pitched in during the city’s litter campaign and helped clean Martin Luther King Park, one of the city’s eight parks.
“We went in after the park had been cleaned, and we picked up 1,000 cigarettes in one hour,” Brigham said as the children handed information packets to each council member. “We have survey cards filled out by 135 people from the community who support making the city’s parks smoke free. We want to rid parks of the dangers of second hand smoke and a form of trash that is not biodegradable. The cost of cigarette cleanup is high. Please consider this for the health of our youth. Our park air should be clean.”
Brigham went on to cite a 2009 San Francisco City Council economic study of the city audit in which it was noted that the city’s annual cost to clean up cigarette butts was more than $7 million.
“They added a 20-cent per pack litter fee for each pack of cigarettes sold in the city,” she said. “We hope these figures get our point across to the parks and recreation director. They need to clean it up.”
So far, the group has only pitched to the Thibodaux council, but if more funding becomes available, the organization will pitch to another council next year.
“We would like to see the ban go statewide,” Brigham said.
“The ban is not on the agenda yet,” said Thibodaux Mayor Tommy Eschete. “The council will have to instigate the issue. I am waiting to see if the council wants to move forward, and we may look into prohibiting smoking in the parks during events that involve children, like soccer and baseball games.”
Eschete’s main concern with the ban would be policing the issue.
“It would be extremely hard to enforcement,” the mayor said. “Our city buildings are smoke-free, but it’s hard to enforce it outside. We could pass an ordinance and post signs but people may still smoke in the parks.”
Cigarette butts litter a park in Thibodaux. Gail Brigham, Adult Coordinator for the START Corporation of the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco Free Living and youth from Defy the Lies after school program presented a proposal to make Thibodaux parks smoke-free at a recent city council meeting.
