Smokers in downtown Golden took their last legal puff on New Year’s Eve, just before the city’s ban on tobacco smoking and electronic cigarette usage in public spaces took effect at midnight Thursday.
Golden’s new rules, which disallow smoking and vaping in the city’s popular downtown area and other outdoor city-owned properties, were just that put a further squeeze on nicotine lovers.
Half a dozen communities — including Louisville, Brighton, Fort Collins and Lakewood — placed e-cigarettes and vaporizing devices under the same restrictions as tobacco last year.
Edgewater , in April. The Greeley City Council will consider doing the same Tuesday.
“The reason I see communities tackling this is to be consistent with their smoke-free laws,” said Bob Doyle, executive director of the Colorado Tobacco Education and Prevention Alliance. “You have a lot more outdoor settings that are smoke-free these days.”
E-cigs, which have been sold in the United States for only about a decade, use a heating element to vaporize a nicotine-laced liquid solution. While they are largely seen as healthier than cigarettes, they are blamed for luring young people to a life of potential nicotine addiction with their array of candy-like flavors.
Towns and cities also have targeted e-cigs and vape pens, Doyle said, because they can be used to surreptitiously consume marijuana — giving off an odor-free vapor instead of smoke.
No community went as far as Golden in 2014 to quash smoking. The city’s ordinance, passed in August and enforced starting Thursday, in the Washington Avenue downtown area.
The rule also expands the existing prohibition on smoking within 15 feet of a primary building entrance to 25 feet.
Golden’s ordinance is akin to one passed by Boulder in 2013, which banned smoking on the Pearl Street Mall. Meanwhile, the Downtown Denver Partnership has .
“There is a general trend against smoking, particularly in shared public spaces,” said Golden Mayor Marjorie Sloan, who noted that the city’s smoke-free ordinance was conceived after diners complained of being exposed to smoke from those walking by outdoor patios.
According to figures from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, 17.7 percent of Colorado adults smoke, compared with 18.1 percent of American adults.
Golden’s acting city manager, Jeff Hansen, said the City Council has long had a focus on improving public health in the city.
“Smoking is just a part of that,” he said.
Signs have been created warning people about Golden’s new smoking rules, and enforcement will begin with an education campaign, he said.
But eventually sanctions will be imposed, with a warning for a first offense and a $50 fine for a second violation.
John Aguilar: 303-954-1695, jaguilar@denverpost.com or twitter.com/abuvthefold
