Milpitas Enacts Secondhand Smoke Protections
On February 7, the city of Milpitas adopted a ban on smoking within 25 feet of public building entrances, sports facilities and playgrounds, culminating Breathe California’s latest efforts to protect the health of our children in local communities. For months, the agency had been working with Milpitas city officials to adopt smoking restrictions in public places, a measure the agency deemed crucial to guarding residents from the danger of secondhand smoke.
Secondhand smoke is a Group A carcinogen that can be especially harmful to children, whose lungs continue to develop as they grow older. It has been proven to cause respiratory tract infections, inner ear infections and a number of other childhood health problems. Secondhand smoke may also be responsible for the onset of between 8,000 and 26,000 new cases of asthma in children every year.
We congratulate the city of Milpitas for taking important steps towards the creation of a smoke free environment for our children. We are now encouraging the city to consider applying the smoking ban to sports facilities in private parks as well as other areas that attract children and other vulnerable populations.
We would like to thank volunteer Steve Soriano for helping turn our latest efforts into a success. We greatly appreciate all the support we receive from local community members. If you would like to join our efforts to create smoke free parks in Milpitas or other localities, please contact us at (408) 998-5865.