City Council Considers Smoking Ban

During their meeting on Monday, the Cambridge City Council decided to investigate a possible ban on smoking in open public spaces such as parks and beaches.

The policy order, passed unanimously by all nine members of the council, asked the Cambridge Public Health Department to draft a report on the feasibility of the ban.

The ban was proposed at Monday’s meeting by Councillor Marjorie C. Decker. If passed, it would extend an existing Massachusetts law that prohibits smoking in public buildings but not in open spaces.

Evaluating the effect of the proposed ban is not an easy task, said Sam Lipson, director of environmental health for CPHD.

“There are many nuances that will come out of this,” he said.

Because the evaluation will involve multiple government bodies—including the Cambridge Police Department, Department of Public Works, and Inspectional Services Department—Lipson said it is hard to predict whether the report will favor the ban.

According to Lipson, the departments will take into consideration the particular layouts of different open public spaces and explore how the proposed ban might affect, for example, a space surrounded by dense residential buildings.

Lipson said that the departments will also investigate whether it would be practical to enforce the order. “Who would enforce this and by what mechanism?” he said.

CPHD and the other departments aim to complete the report on the ban by later this fall, when the Council will discuss the policy again.

Karen Cecchini, the manager of Leavitt & Peirce, a 127-year-old tobacco shop in Harvard Square, expressed dissatisfaction with the proposed ban.

“I think people should be allowed to smoke wherever they want to smoke,” she said.

Banning indoor smoking is understandable, but banning it in open public space is not, Cecchini said, because “it’s not really affecting other people.”

Decker modeled her proposal after a similar one suggested by New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. She could not be reached for comment.

—Staff writer Sirui Li can be reached at sli@college.harvard.edu.