suggested<\/a>.<\/p>\nIf it isn’t clear already, I don’t have an ounce of compassion for smokers. One of my pet peeves is being caught behind a smoker (or even worse, a group of smokers) in the middle of the sidewalk. I’ll even make sure that the security guards who patrol around my office enforce the nine meter rule for smokers near the doors of the building — yes, even in winter.<\/p>\n
But sports fields hold a special significance to me.<\/p>\n
Aside from the occasional babysitting and dog walking gig, my first real pay cheque came from umpiring kids baseball games for the North Toronto Baseball Association. I did it for a few summers starting when I was 14. The baseball league’s rules included a very clear no smoking clause for players and observers but enforcing it was a completely different ball game.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Try being a 14 year old telling a parent with a nicotine addiction to butt out. It doesn’t go over very well. While some are easily shamed, I had more than a few parents undermine my request for them to take their cigarette elsewhere or put it out. It got to the point that when I had a parent who continued to ignore the rules of the field, I’d just stop the game. Eventually the pressure of their child’s embarrassment, the inconvenienced players on the field or the other parents in the stands would force the smoking dad (never a mom) to do the right thing.<\/p>\n
The first time I made a point of enforcing the rule I wasn’t too sure of myself. I thought maybe I’d gone over the line of the necessary and on to power trip. That feeling was erased when a couple of parents and players thanked me for asserting the rule like few others would. It made the game and park more enjoyable for them.<\/p>\n
Fast forward ten years and I now coach a youth team at a baseball diamond in the former city of York. Things haven’t changed. Some parents still smoke like chimneys at the games, even right behind the backstop where the smoke wafts right on to the field. The difference now is this league doesn’t have a smoking rule so I can’t do anything but ask that the smokers keep their distance from my team’s dugout.<\/p>\n
For those who will snap back that it isn’t just kids who use the City’s sports fields, I’m unmoved. I play baseball in a men’s league with a few smokers (or smoking significant others) on every team. The rules for our league include no smoking in the dugouts or on the field but with chain link fences and wind, smoke blows all over and us non-smokers just hope our at-bats don’t conflict with a smoker feeding their addiction nearby.<\/p>\n
Bottom line: it just doesn’t make sense to expose the majority of the population to the whims of the smoking minority in public spaces. Parks should be for everyone to enjoy without feeling like they’ve got to move to get away from someone else’s dirty habit. If you want to smoke, it’s up to you to find a place where no one else is being inconvenienced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 Toronto’s Board of Health and Parks and Environment Committee are recommending [PDF] City Council ban smoking within nine meters of Toronto playgrounds and other child-oriented outdoor recreation facilities to prevent children from inhaling second hand smoke from nearby adults. To the Board of Health, I say: good on you. But the ban should goContinue reading “Ban smoking at sports fields, too”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4037,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,47,2],"tags":[7749,5628,756,11293,23,5246,11290,4319,416,11292,19,11291,496],"class_list":["post-3968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-green-space","category-parks","category-politics","tag-baseball","tag-board-of-health","tag-city-council","tag-coach-a-youth-team","tag-environment","tag-health","tag-north-toronto-baseball-association","tag-parks-and-environment-committee","tag-pdf","tag-the-north-toronto-baseball-association","tag-toronto","tag-torontos-board-of-health-and-parks","tag-york"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBan smoking at sports fields, too - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/01\/22\/ban-smoking-at-sports-fields-too\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ban smoking at sports fields, too - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0 Toronto’s Board of Health and Parks and Environment Committee are recommending [PDF] City Council ban smoking within nine meters of Toronto playgrounds and other child-oriented outdoor recreation facilities to prevent children from inhaling second hand smoke from nearby adults. 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<\/p>\n