Utah County Update
Outdoor smoking ban looms
10/07/2006
Todd Hollingshead
PROVO – Lighting up a cigarette at an outdoor concert in Utah County may soon be a thing of the past.
Utah County Health Department officials are working to ban tobacco use at outdoor venues in the county in an effort to corral the effects of secondhand smoke.
“We’re trying to protect areas where there are a lot of children from the effects of secondhand smoke,” said Meghan Lane of Utah County’s Tobacco Prevention and Control Program.
Lane said Utah County officials are following the lead of the Salt Lake Valley Health Department, where administrators of tobacco-prevention programs have been pushing for more smoke-free venues.
Already, Utah County health officers are talking with bosses at Thanksgiving Point, Sundance, Tahitian Noni and other outdoor amphitheater sites in hopes of making them smoke-free.
Some outdoor venues have already signed up.
Hee Haws corn maze in American Fork has committed to the effort, Lane said, and today’s “Provopalooza” music, dance and comedy festival also will be smoke-free.
No-smoking signs will be posted at the afternoon show at Provo’s Parkway Village at 2255 N. University Ave. – and announcements will be made between band performances.
“I love planning big events and keeping it clean and giving people another outlet,” said organizer Giovanni Fazzini, a Brigham Young University graduate. “We just want people to come out and feel free to have a good, safe time.”
Fazzini said alcohol is also prohibited at the 4 p.m. festival.
Utah County Health Department spokesman Lance Madigan said the plan is to help promote organizations and venues that embrace the no-smoking rules.
“We’re trying to acknowledge those organizations that are making an effort to protect all of us,” Madigan said.
Madigan and other health officials say studies have shown that concentrations of secondhand smoke in outdoor areas can be as high, or higher, than some indoor areas.
They say secondhand smoke can trigger in nonsmokers bronchial infections, asthma attacks and other serious health problems.
