ATLANTIC BEACH, Fla. — (The video above is from a previous report)
Atlantic Beach City Commissioners voted unanimously Monday night to ban smoking in public parks and beaches during a regular City Commission Meeting.
The ordinance defines smoking as inhaling, exhaling, burning, carrying, or possessing any lighted tobacco product, including cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, and any other lighted tobacco product.
It does not include unfiltered cigars or vaping products.
Beaches Go Green Founder Anne Marie Moquin spoke in support of the ordinance during the courtesy-of-the-floor segment of the agenda.
She said that studies show that cigarettes are deadly and otherwise harmful to humans who smoke them and those who are exposed to second-hand smoke.
Moquin also noted that cigarette butts may be the most littered item in the world.
"The ordinance is needed to protect the food that we grow and the oceans that we so heavily depend on," she said.
A representative of Tobacco Free Jacksonville was also on hand to support the ordinance's passage.
Any person who violates the newly passed ordinance could receive a citation and civil penalty of $75.00 for each violation.
However, Atlantic Beach Mayor Ellen Glasser said that the first order of business will be educating the public about the ban, not a focus on fines.
"It's a huge litter issue and throughout the city and all over the coast," Glasser told First Coast News. "I have been pushing this very hard for a long time... we will roll this out by putting signs up, etc. There will be an enforcement element, but not what it's about. It's more about clean air and reducing litter."
Earlier this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill authorizing local governments to restrict smoking on public Florida beaches and parks.
Ordinances that ban smoking at public beaches and parks passed earlier this year in Fernandina and St. Augustine Beach.
Glasser says that this passage marks the 15th city in Florida that has passed a no smoking ordinance on its beaches.