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Boulder Bans Smoking On Pearl Street Mall

Boulder Bans Smoking On Pearl Street Mall
The Boulder Daily Camera
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Smoking will not be allowed on the Pearl Street Mall starting in January.

The Boulder City Council gave unanimous approval Tuesday night to a ban on smoking on the four blocks of the mall and the lawn of the Boulder County Courthouse.

Because of a technical issue, the ordinance will require a third reading, which is expected to happen Dec. 18, and the measure will go into effect 30 days later.

Molly Winter, downtown and University Hill management division director, said the city will allow for a transition before police officers start writing tickets, which could carry fines of up to $500 for the first two offenses within two years.

A third offense in two years could result in a fine of up to $1,000 and up to 90 days in jail.

There will be signs on the mall about the new rules, and police officers will issue warnings at first, Winter said. Police most likely will start writing tickets sometime in March.

Proponents of the ban say it will make the mall a more pleasant place for visitors, reduce litter and protect people from the negative health effects of second-hand smoke.

Several people spoke in opposition to the ban at the meeting Tuesday night.

Though Downtown Boulder Inc. supports the ban, Bruce Campbell, a member-owner at the Boulder Arts and Crafts Gallery, said he surveyed every business that opens onto the mall and found 59 percent of owners don't want smoking banned.

Campbell said opponents of the ban worry it will discourage visitors, especially European tourists, and will make Boulder's nanny-state reputation worse.

"It's easy to imagine someone's vacation being ruined by a $500 fine and going home and telling people, 'Don't go to Boulder,'" he said.

John Massey said he sings and plays music on the mall and relies on cigarettes to give his voice its bluesy character. He said exhaust represents a much more significant health risk than smoke.

Councilman George Karakehian, who owns a business on the mall, said cigarette smoke drifting into his store and litter outside it are both big problems. He also mentioned -- in saying why he would be voting in favor of the ban -- that his father died of lung cancer after years of smoking. ___

(c)2012 the Daily Camera (Boulder, Colo.)

Visit the Daily Camera (Boulder, Colo.) at www.dailycamera.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services

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Before You Go

Natural Ways To Quit Smoking
Mindfulness (01 of05)
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Mindfulness training helped participants in a 2011 Drug and Alcohol Dependence study to stay off cigarettes. That study included 88 people who smoked 20 cigarettes daily, on average, who were split up into two groups: One received four weeks of mindfulness training, while the other group went through four weeks of an American Lung Association stop-smoking program. The researchers found that more of those who went through the mindfulness training smoked fewer cigarettes -- and stayed off them -- than those who went through the other stop-smoking program. The mindfulness training included realizing when you're facing a craving, accepting it, thinking about what's happening and then taking note of the sensation (whether it's tightness or pressure), Psychology Today reported. (credit:Alamy)
Weight Lifting (02 of05)
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Jogging and bicycling aren't the only exercises that could help you kick the smoking habit -- Shape magazine reported that weightlifting could help, too.The research, published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research, showed that doing two hour-long weightlifting sessions for 12 weeks plus undergoing treatment to quit smoking was linked with greater success in quitting smoking, compared with just undergoing the stop-smoking treatment. (credit:ShutterStock)
Eat Produce(03 of05)
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Eating lots of fruits and veggies could help smokers maintain a tobacco-free lifestyle, according to research from the University of Buffalo.The study, published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research, included 1,000 smokers ages 25 and older. The researchers had the participants answer surveys about their smoking habits and their fruit and vegetable intake. Then, they followed up with them 14 months later and asked them if they used tobacco over the past month.The researchers found that there was a relationship between the amount of fruits and vegetables the study participants ate, and the likelihood that they quit -- and stayed off -- tobacco. In fact, people who ate the most produce in the study were three times more likely to report that they'd been tobacco free in the previous month.The researchers also found a link between increased produce consumption and taking longer in the day to have the first cigarette, smoking fewer cigarettes, and decreased dependence on nicotine (based on test results). (credit:Alamy)
Acupuncture And Hypnosis(04 of05)
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A review of studies suggests there is evidence that acupuncture and hypnosis can work to help quit smoking, Reuters reported. Researchers, who published their findings in the American Journal of Medicine, said that other options -- like medications and counseling -- should be tried first, but that hypnosis and acupuncture could help if those options don't work, or if people don't want to go on medications, according to Reuters. (credit:Alamy)
Text Messages (05 of05)
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Who knew your phone could be used to help you quit smoking? A recent study published in the journal The Lancet showed that smokers who enrolled in a program called "txt2stop" -- where they received encouraging text messages to quit smoking -- were twice as likely to kick the habit after six months, compared with smokers who didn't get any encouraging messages. In the study, conducted by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, one group was able to text words like "lapse" and "crave" to a phone number, and received an encouraging text message in return, CNET reported. The other group of people, however, only got one text message every two weeks, and that message just thanked them for being part of the study. (credit:ShutterStock)
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