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We share a passion for smoke-free air with yet another town in Western New York: West Seneca. Thanks to the efforts of the town board, and supervisor Sheila Meegan, all playgrounds, parks and town-owned properties are now smoke free. And the signs are going up to prove it.
Town officials will be placing signs at recreation facilities and playgrounds at the community’s 17 parks all summer long. Signs were provided to the town at no cost by Tobacco-Free Roswell Park at Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
Nora Galley, a tobacco-free youth advocate from Reality Check of Erie and Niagara Counties, and lifelong West Seneca resident, approves the measure.
“Now my friends and I can enjoy walking through the park with fresher, cleaner air,” she said. “And without toxic cigarette butts.”
West Seneca Town Supervisor Sheila Meegan is encouraged that her town properties will be safer and healthier for all citizens.
Here’s why she wanted the law established in her town.
Exposure to cigarette smoke is a deadly danger. Last year alone, over 400,000 people in the United States died from smoking and secondhand smoke exposure, almost 30,000 here in New York State. This tobacco-free policy will improve public health by reducing secondhand smoke exposure, and help the environment by reducing littered cigarette butts, the most common toxic waste.