The City of Niagara Falls is poised to implement more stringent smoke-free rules inside and outside all city-owned or leased buildings.
The Common Council this month unanimously approved a bill that bans smoking on all property that is owned or leased by the city. While most city facilities were already smoke-free, sponsor Ezra Scott
Jr., a Niagara Falls lawmaker who works at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, told WBFO the new measure expands rules to protect people from second-hand smoke.
Scott said smoke-free policies will be expanded to areas immediately outside city facilities. They will also apply to city-owned vehicles and will prohibit the smoking of e-cigarettes in all city buildings and vehicles.
Niagara Falls is the latest municipality to work with Tobacco-Free Western New York on more stringent smoke-free regulations, said Anthony Billoni, the group’s executive director. He credited Council member Scott for helping to win passage of the bill.
“We’re very excited,” Billoni said. “I believe it encompasses 40-plus different buildings and what we’ve heard from [city officials] is that they believe it harkens a new era of public health in their city.”
Among the local experts who lobbied for passage of the law was Theresa McCabe, public health educator and manager of the Healthy Neighborhoods program, for the Niagara County Department of Health.
Billoni said anti-smoking advocates have been working on a regular basis to push for implementation of smoke-free policies. He noted that numerous areas in New York state parks are completely smoke-free as a result of previous efforts.
