Borough to be Honored for Smoke-Free Playgrounds

In June, Doylestown Borough parks went smoke-free.

Now, the borough council members who approved that ban are being honored for helping protect kids' health.

The "Young Lungs at Play" community group will stop in Doylestown borough this week as part of a "tour" recognizing local communities for taking steps to protect children's health in public places.

They will gather Thursday at 4 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Park in Maplewood to honor borough leaders who voted to approve the measure.

The Doylestown visit will come after stops in Chester, Ephrata and Pottsville, other Pennsylvania communities that have enacted smoking bans in public parks and playgrounds. The tour comes during the week of the Great American Smoke Out.

Young Lungs at Play is a public health initiative of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the Clean Air Council and the Health Promotion Council.

After Doylestown council's vote in June, new signs were posted in the borough's parks alerting the public that smoking is no longer allowed. The signs were donated to the borough by the Council of Southeast Pennsylvania, a leading regional substance abuse and prevention agency based in Doylestown.

Council members cited the adverse health affects of second-hand smoke and the nuisance of littering cigarette butts as impetus for the ban.