Denver would become the first city in Colorado to ban smoking on large stretches of city sidewalks around hospitals, leading one councilwoman to worry that smokers will move into surrounding neighborhoods.
“This is not a good-neighbor policy,” said Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz. “The impact will be from people moving the next block over. (Neighbors) are going to get quite an impact.”
Denver’s City Council votes Monday on an ordinance that would kick smokers off the curb, imposing smoke-free zones on sidewalks, alleys and lawns around hospitals. Violators would be fined up to $300.
The idea is to protect patients from secondhand smoke wafting in from grounds outside of hospitals, said Councilwoman Carol Boigon.
“People who are fragile from heart illnesses or pulmonary or respiratory disease are very vulnerable to secondhand smoke,” Boigon said.
The city’s ordinance was devised after 12 Denver hospitals last month banded together to announce they would become tobacco-free zones, no longer providing designated smoking areas anywhere on their campuses, including in parking areas, outdoor walkways or grassy areas.
That left city sidewalks outside hospitals as logical places to light up. This ordinance works to snuff out that loophole. The rule would prohibit smoking from the hospital’s exterior to the sidewalk gutter or on any public right of way.
“It creates a safe passageway into the building,” Boigon said. “The reason we couldn’t just do a ban near the front door is, there are many entrances to the hospital.”
State law already prohibits smoking within 15 feet of a hospital entrance, Faatz said.
“I’m very open to putting whatever number on it to make a reasonable entry and exit,” Faatz said. “But to say that an entire block or several blocks, including parking lots, should be smoke-free, that will push it into neighborhoods.”
The city’s ordinance would go into effect in October.
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
