Village to prohibit vaping in public parks
On July 15, the village board passed an ordinance to ban e-cigarette usage in indoor spaces where tobacco cigarettes are prohibited.
“The broader discussion happened a while back in terms of health interest in updating and aligning electronic cigarette usage with tobacco usage,” said Ann Christiansen, health department director.
“It sparked based on a resident … who had submitted an email to the village board members requesting them to take action to specifically ban vaping because of the negative health effects,” said Rebecca Ewald, village manager.
The village board took that as a source for action, and made their first step.
“The board … prohibited vaping in the same places that the state prohibits smoking in public places to kind of make it consistent with that,” Ewald said.
But then they started to look further into the topic.
“The question came up, and there was some interest based upon public comment, to ban smoking and e-cigarettes usage in public parks,” Ewald said.
Other municipalities throughout Wisconsin such as Appleton, Oshkosh, Verona, and Wisconsin Dells have banned smoking in parks as well.
“That’s something that we haven’t done here before,” Ewald said.
But Christiansen first wanted to make sure that their audience had the proper information on the issue.
“I think that what we did from the North Shore Health Department is [we] tried to educate the policy makers … about what our concerns were with the issue … as well as growing evidence about lung diseases that are impacting residents,” Christiansen said.
The village has been gathering input from the board, and also from the community to see where they stand on the issue.
“We’re collecting information directly from both residents of Shorewood, as well as the broader North Shore as our utilizers to the parks and beaches in the area,” Christiansen said.
Most of the responses have been positive.
“The majority that we’ve heard from is yes. People have been kind of vocal saying ‘yes, ban it’,” Ewald said.
Though some feel differently.
“I think that if you are legally allowed to [vape or smoke], then you should be allowed to do it wherever you want to,” said Maddy Steinberg, junior.
Steinberg thinks it should be a tobacco or e-cigarette user’s choice to endure the health risks that come with the product.
“There are health risks involved but it’s also people choosing to make that choice,” Steinberg said. “And if you want to choose to do that, then you should be able to.”
Moving forward, the village is planning on getting as much publicity and feedback from residents as possible.
“Then I would anticipate that in November or December we would bring the topic back to the board and take action,” Ewald said.V