Smoke-free sport facilities push

The Cancer Council is working with the City of Albany to propose a smoking ban in public spaces where children play sport, such as the Centennial Sporting Precinct.

City of Albany officers presented a proposed City of Albany Smoke Free Outdoors Policy to the council in December 2017, as revealed by the Albany Advertiser.

Since then, officers have been working with the council on a preliminary plan on the application of the policy in public spaces such as Centennial Stadium and other nearby North Road ovals to present to the council.

Cancer Council WA’s Bruce Beamish said they were fully supportive of any initiative by the City to make the Centennial Park sporting facilities smoke free.

“Expanding smoke-free public places, such as the Centennial Stadium, will protect non-smokers from exposure to second-hand smoke and will support people who are trying to quit,” he said.

“It will also increase public awareness of harms caused by second-hand smoke, reduce the amount of smoking among smokers, reduce the social acceptability of smoking and minimise children’s exposure to role-modelling of smoking. Extending the smoke-free public places to outdoor areas is a significant next step towards protecting the health of people in the Great Southern.”

City of Albany community services executive director Susan Kay said the City was working closely with key stakeholders including sporting clubs and associations to develop a preliminary plan to present back to the council how a smoke-free outdoors policy would be applied before it makes a decision on the policy.

“We know second-hand smoke can cause significant harmful effects to our health and what the proposed policy aims to do is protect the community, particularly young children, from exposure to this in outdoor public spaces.

“The Cancer Council has informally provided advice to the City to assist in preparing this plan and we look forward to presenting the plan to council in the near future.”