Watching your children play Saturday morning sport? Supervising the littlies at the playground? Just don't try and light up a cigarette while you're at it.
This week, parks, reserves and playgrounds across parts of Auckland will become officially Smokefree.
On Thursday, World Smokefree Day, the Puketapapa Local Board becomes one of the first Auckland areas to make all parks and playgrounds Smokefree. To mark the occasion, the board, which covers the suburbs of Hillsborough, Lynfield, Mt Roskill, Three Kings, Waikowhai and Wesley is launching their Smokefree playgrounds with an event at Keith Hay Park in Mt Roskill. The Auckland Council's new Smokefree signage will be unveiled and there will be speeches by Local Board and Cancer Society representatives.
The Waitemata Local Board, covering the CBD, Newmarket, Ponsonby, Westmere, Grey Lynn and Parnell, is also using Thursday to launch its smokefree playground and sportsfield policy with an event at Victoria Park. New council signage will be unveiled and students from Ponsonby Intermediate will compete in a skateboard and scooter competition.
Waitemata Local Board member Rob Thomas says many submissions to the Local Board plan, supported making playgrounds and sportsfields smokefree.
"As a board we came to the conclusion that it should be around playgrounds and sportsfields, not all parks. It's about making spaces that children use smokefree. It doesn't prevent people going down to their local park and smoking, so long as there is no playground around."
Mr Thomas says there will be no active enforcement of the rules and he calls on the public to point out signage to anyone flaunting the new ban.
"We want to create safe, healthy environments for children and the signs show that as a community we support this."
The Auckland Plan includes a smokefree goal of reducing smoking rates to less than 3 per cent by 2025. The plan states that "by 2025 all parks, reserves, children's play areas and other public spaces will be Smokefree", and is in line with the Government's goal of a Smokefree New Zealand by 2025.
There is significant public support for a smokefree Auckland. Twelve of the 21 Local Boards identified smokefree as a priority for their communities and a recent NZ Herald poll showed that 74 per cent of more than 19,000 respondents were favourable of a smokefree Auckland.
Cancer Society Auckland CEO John Loof says smokefree is about looking after whanau, and protecting future generations.
"When children use the parks, they should be learning how to play sports and have fun, not learning how to smoke. By removing smoking from the areas where children play we will no longer normalise smoking behaviour," says Mr Loof.
"Auckland Council has committed to smokefree in the Auckland plan which is a very positive step towards a future with less cancer. It is great that Local Boards have also taken a lead with smokefree areas, and we look forward to Auckland Council making smokefree the norm more and more across the city."
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