The King County Board of Health could soon consider a countywide ban on smoking in stadiums and parks, a move that has drawn opposition from homeless advocates in the past.
King County already bans smoking and vaping in workplaces and "public places" like bars, restaurants, and theaters. About half of the cities in the county, including Seattle, have smoking bans in parks. Those cities enforce the bans with a range of penalties from fines to expulsion from parks. A new effort spearheaded by King County Council member Rod Dembowski, who chairs the board of health, would expand the park ban countywide.
Last year, following a campaign to ban tobacco from Major League Baseball stadiums, the board of health directed its staff to look into a smoking ban for our local stadiums. The board is made of elected officials from across the county including four county council members and four Seattle City Council members. When staff met later with Dembowski, he directed them to write a broader policy banning tobacco use in all county parks and stadiums, according to a staff report. Now, a discussion of the policy appears on the board's agenda for its Thursday meeting. A staffer in Dembowski's office said the policy is still undergoing legal review and board members may not discuss it until their next meeting in February.
When the City of Seattle undertook its own smoking ban push in 2015, advocates for people experiencing homelessness pushed back. Initially, the city said it would give violators a $27 ticket. Groups including Real Change and the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington raised concerns the rule could disproportionately affect people experiencing homelessness.
Tickets would "impose a counterproductive financial burden on Seattle residents who already are homeless," the ACLU wrote to the city. "Most will be unable to pay the $27 fine, and the City will waste resources attempting to collect from them." The Low Income Housing Institute called it an "overreach and an offense to social justice."
Eventually, the Board of Park Commissioners approved the ban but removed the $27 ticket.
It's not yet clear whether a countywide ban would include tickets. According to the staff report, along with half of local cities, all of the professional stadiums in King County already ban smoking and vaping among attendees. But since users may not know which parks are operated by which local government, a full ban would "communicate consistent community norms across jurisdictions," the report says. The report does not address a potential disproportionate impact on people experiencing homelessness. "Language encouraging any individual enforcement to be focused in a non-punitive and equitable approach that supports cessation," it says.
Dembowski has not yet responded to a request for comment. I'll update this post if I hear back.
