For more information on the Androscoggin Land Trust's new no-smoking policy: http://www.androscogginlandtrust.org/ or www.healthyandroscoggin.org.
LEWISTON — Following the state's lead of not allowing smoking in state parks and beaches, the Androscoggin Land Trust will be asking anyone using their land not to smoke.
Signs advising the public of the new rule will be posted in the coming days, said Executive Director Jonathan LaBonte.
The no-smoking policy only applies to land owned by the trust, not land owned by cities and towns, or land easements ALT manages. For example, in Lewiston the no-smoking rule will apply to the David Rancourt River Preserve, which includes 14 acres and walking trails that begin behind Marden's on Tall Pines Drive. In Auburn, smoking will be banned at the Sherwood Forest Conservation Area, 28 acres with fields and trails near Sherwood Heights Elementary School.
The ALT also owns woods, fields and trails in Jay, Greene, Hebron, Turner, Canton and Bowdoin, where the no-smoking policy will apply.
Unlike the smoking ban at state parks, the land trust no-smoking rule is more of a request, not a law.
But the public is good about following advisories from posted signs, LaBonte said.
The no-smoking policy was approved by the land trust's board last month, said Sarah Mayberry of Healthy Androscoggin.
"The new law that covers Maine state parks and beaches from smoking, this is the same movement to protect folks from secondhand smoke, reduce the litter and fire risks," she said. "It's an exciting accomplishment, an exciting movement. There will be a lot of space protected from tobacco use."
On some trails there is now not much smoking, but on others closer to populated areas, such as the trail near Tall Pines in Lewiston and a park off Route 4 in Turner, there's a higher chance someone would sit on a bench or picnic table and smoke, LaBonte said.
The land trust wants to promote more people getting outdoors, and it wants to ensure those areas are tobacco-free, he said. Actively promoting no smoking also removes a risk of fire in remote areas, he said.
The policy was researched and written by a Healthy Androscoggin youth group at Auburn Middle School. Students learned why the policy was being proposed, researched the need for it, wrote the language and made a presentation to the land trust board — which adopted the policy, Mayberry said.
Having students research and write the policy helped them build new skills, "and hopefully they'll take away from it that they have the ability to make change, that they have a voice."
With more emphasis on healthy lifestyles and the dangers of tobacco, plus higher cigarette taxes, smoking has declined in Maine and in the nation.
Statewide, the smoking rate in 2008 was 18.2 percent; nationally, it was 18.4 percent, according to the Partnership for a Tobacco Free Maine.
"We're higher in Androscoggin County," Mayberry said. The latest county data from 2006 showed that 24.5 percent of Androscoggin County adults smoked.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the national smoking rate is at its lowest level since the late 1920s. The highest was in 1965 when 42.4 percent of American adults smoked.
Even though the rate is dropping, the number of deaths from cigarettes is rising, with 443,000 deaths each year attributed to tobacco use, according to the CDC.
This is SOOOOoooooo STUPID.
The property is OUTSIDE....the state screwed up.....if we as a society is going to condemn "smokers"....let's just cut to the quick and adopt Hitler's solution.....PLEASE send all those who smoke to a "Work Camp"....from which they never return. In the minds of those who rabidly oppose it...this will make sense financially. Lets go. Please...just kill us.
I remember going to an incredible restaurant above a butcher shop in Portland one summer and I was the only one on the full patio NOT smoking. There is nothing more disgusting than chewing with your mouth closed, (thanks Mom), and inhaling someone's cigarette through your nostrils. Let's hope we make it so expensive and so difficult, people quit! Zyban does wonders folks and my brother, a chain smoker for 30 years, quit after being on it for two months! Imagine taking your kids on a hike and Joey two pack is puffing away and we are inhaling his bad habit as we huff and puff up the hill. Come on people. Take some deep, clean breaths and give your lungs and your wallet a break....quit before it's too late....
Every time you limit when and where people can smoke, you are making their addiction worse. Their existing guilt, shame and low self-esteem is a vicious cycle which reinforces their need to smoke. As a substance abuse counselor, I know that creating acceptance and promoting individual desire to change is paramount to helping the success of the addict.
"Political do-gooders" perpetuate the problem by trying to legislate medical treatment and to earn the votes of their constituency. We don't pass laws to punish people with diabetes or cerebral palsy or cancer.
We have learned that the "just say no" policy has not been succesful in treating drug addiction. Nicotine is a drug and smoking outside does not harm others. Lobbyists for tobacco and greedy politicians make for a very potent, ineffective solution.
Shame on the Androscoggin group for publishing such a mis-informed and harmful policy
As a non-smoker, I have a real big problem with denying a smoker's rights to light up OUTSIDE. I mean the second-hand smoke argument is a pretty weak one when it comes to being in the woods. For the sake of litter and potential fires I can see not wanting it on your land, but if people smoke responsibly there should be no issue.
I think Maine is going too far with the no-smoking. People can't smoke inside and now can't smoke outside in certain areas. Then the state jacks up the taxes on cigarettes because nobody is smoking and they are missing the revenue. I do believe there are bigger worries then whether or not some on is smoking.
Tobacco is legal in the US to buy and use and they are going a bit overboard with no smoking outdoors. If the government were to make cigs illegal then that would be a different story. I think the worst part of smokers is that they litter so badly. Buts are everywhere on the ground! Come on people, don't be such slobs, clean up after yourselves and pick up your butts!!!
The outdoor policy in the state is getting a bit thick and reminds one that Maine is turning into a police state. One understands that second hand smoke is dangerous, but so are the fumes from motor vehicles and from barbecue grills. If the state is going this route then no drinking in front of children should be allowed as that will lead them down the path to alcoholism and drug abuse. The state needs the tax money from the use of tobacco to fund the myriad of programs it offers as Maine has lost it manufacturing base due to the draconian taxes. I am afraid this country is going down the path to Marxism just as China is loosening up. In college, I read "Brave New World," and "1984". The scenarios in those books are becoming frightenly real and seems like "Big Brother" is alive and getting bigger by the minute.
People want to live forever and be safe. Well, that is not the way things will ever work.
If humanity doesn't learn to stop overpopulating, over developing that may stave off some catastrophe for awhile, but there are natural disasters waiting to happen which we can't stop. Wars and terrorism we can't seem to stop. So, focus on tobacco and be self-righteous, take away freedom and not let people focus on real threats like this new swine flu virus or avian flu. Let them feel that the government, be it federal, state or local, is going to keep them safe so people don't focus on the fact that it is the ineffective leaders who have lost the jobs in the state for us and ruined the lives they havevbefore something that can't be controlled happens. No mention of AIDS much these days, I have noticed. That isn't a problem is it anymore??? What a sad state this has become; nothing more than a tourist destination like Cancun or a place for the rich retirees to live. Sorry I have to live here.
I can understrand the reason for not smoking indoors cause of the issue of being in an enclosed space, the chance of breathing the 2nd hand smoke is probable. but come on, being outdoors there is very little chance of breathing 2nd hand smoke since it is dispersed in the air. the likelyhood of breathing in the carcengins of car exhaust or the pollution that is in the air all the time is more unhealthy than 2nd hand cigerette smoke. when one sits in traffic on a hot day and the window rolled down, you are breathing in some pretty nasty stuff, or go to Acadia State park on a hot summer day and see all the smog that is hanging in the air, and know that you are breathing in all that. and we worry about a very small % of the population that might light up outdoors?
Everyone who drives their car to that trail is contributing to the global problem of pollution and global warming, and that is something to really worry about than a few people that smoke outside. So I think that this new law for State Parks and the land trust is going a bit overboard.
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