Beaches, parks, grounds of city buildings to go tobacco-free in Lake Worth

Lake Worth plans to create a new environment free of tobacco smoke.

According to our newspartners at the Palm Beach Post , cigarette smoking would not longer be allowed at Lake Worth Beach. The ban would also extend to city parks and the grounds of city buildings.

The tobacco-free parks and workplace ordinance will be modeled after a similar one suggested by the county health department.

Promoting healthy lifestyles and reducing health insurance costs for city employees are also goals of the project according to Mayor Rene Varela.

Enforcement would not be strict and would likely come by raising awareness about the ordinance, Varela said.

"We all know realistically we're not going to have police out there enforcing this," Varela said. "A big push in public health is creating awareness."

The health department has offered to help the city with its anti-smoking campaign at no charge by:

* Providing tobacco-free signs for property.
* Helping organize events to raise awareness about the hazards of smoking.
* Supplying brochures about smoking and contact information for the Florida Quitline, a telephone service that provides counseling, nicotine patches and other services to smokers trying to quit.
* Offering city employees services to help them quit smoking.

Health department statistics showing that more than 80 percent of county residents are non-smokers.