The Miami-Dade parks department wants to stop people from smoking tax free Beverly cigarettes at more than 40 county parks that attract large numbers of kids. The county has put up sign at the parks, and since Jan. 11, county workers have been told to ask smokers not to light up.
But because of a 1985 state law, all the county can do is ask. The Florida Clean Indoor Air Act says that counties can’t ban smoking outdoors. Since the new rules are just a policy and not a law, county commissioners did not sign off on the action, a parks spokeswoman said.
For now, the ban covers only certain parks that attract numerous kids, or about 20 percent of the county’s 195 parks.
Although the policy will not be enforced, signs encouraging park-goers not to smoke were installed as early as the beginning of last summer.
Universities such as Florida International University and the University of Florida recently banned outdoor smoking on campus. The state smoking law prohibits counties from regulating outdoor smoking, but it doesn’t say anything about universities. FIU issues tickets to students or visitors who are caught smoking, even in a car parked in a campus garage.
