Smoke Free Recreational Areas
Why Does this Matter?
Placer County is a world-wide destination for outdoor recreation, with a variety of outdoor recreational areas to utilize, including but not limited to:
- Beaches
- Campgrounds
- Gold panning parks
- Hiking trails
- Lakes
- Rivers
- Ski resorts
- Snowshoe trails
With tobacco being the number one piece of litter found in recreational areas, the Placer County Tobacco Prevention Program wants to help jurisdictions implement smoke-free recreational areas to protect the residents and outdoor areas of our County.
What’s Currently Happening in Placer?
As of 2016, five jurisdictions in Placer County (Auburn, Lincoln, Loomis, Rocklin, and Roseville) passed smoke-free recreation policies. Approximately 128 parks in the county are now smoke-free, which means 74% of Placer County parks protect visitors from exposure to secondhand smoke and tobacco litter. Click to see a map of smoke-free recreational areas in Placer County.
However, about one-third of the parks, playgrounds, campgrounds, and beaches in the county are still not smoke-free. Colfax and unincorporated Placer County, which includes North Lake Tahoe, do not have smoke-free recreational areas. All of Placer County is a world-wide destination for outdoor recreation, with North Lake Tahoe alone receiving 3 million visitors per year. Smoke-free policies for recreational areas can serve as a tool in not only protecting the region so that tourism can robustly continue, but can also protect visitors and year-round residents from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke and tobacco litter. In fact, the State of California enacted smoke-free state parks and beaches in January 2020 with this in mind.
To learn more about implementing smoke-free policies for a recreational area, please contact the Placer County Tobacco Control Program at 530-886-3629.