Poll: City Launches Survey About Tobacco Use in Parks

Prefer to prohibit puffing in parks and other public places outdoors? That’s what the City of Kirkland is asking, inviting the public to take an on-line survey about all tobacco use in Kirkland’s parks, playgrounds, sports fields and on its trails.

And the city is not just blowing smoke. The is taking the survey in conjunction with other cities and King County Parks, which recently received a federal “Communities Putting Prevention to Work” (CPPW) grant.

CPPW is an initiative of the federal Center for Disease Control to prevent chronic disease through policy change, and it is tackling the issues of obesity and tobacco use.

There has been no public outcry to ban tobacco in the city’s parks, says Parks Director Jennifer Schroder, but the issue does come up.

“People look to our parks as healthy places to be and for some, they feel like it’s not a place to smell second-hand smoke,” Schroder says. “I have received calls, I’d say two in the last year, from parents complaining about the lack of no-smoking signs near playgrounds.”

In addition, a member of the Kirkland Youth Council also recently raised the issue of smoking in parks, and the youth council helped the parks department prepare the survey, which asks multiple questions.

More than two dozen cities in 12 counties across Washington have adopted policies promoting smoke-free and tobacco-free areas in outdoor public places.

You can take the survey through Oct. 28 here: www.kirklandwa.gov/tobaccosurvey.

Results from the survey, combined with the results from a recent in-person survey conducted at several downtown parks, will be presented to the city’s Park Board in November. For more information, you can contact Schroder at 425-587-3301 or jschroder@kirklandwa.gov.

In the meantime, you can also take our own informal survey below.