The Orange County Health Department hopes that a series of locally produced videos will empower citizens to tell each other: “You can’t smoke here.”
Public Information Officer Stacy Shelp of the Orange County Health Department said that one goal of the videos, now posted on the Orange County website, is to show people how to say no to other people smoking. That can be awkward, “whether it’s mom on the playground, or the person on the street, or the shop owner, or county-employee-to-county-employee, or town employees.”
Another goal is to get the videos out there.
“We would love them to go as viral as they can,” said Shelp. “We are encouraging the different towns, municipalities, police departments, et cetera, to share them – to have them on their websites.”
On Oct. 24, 2012, then-Chair Tony Whitaker signed the Orange County Board of Health Rule that bans smoking in public places and in county-and-town buildings ground and vehicles.
The 11-page document lays out all the affected places – including bus stops, sidewalks and polling places – and cites North Carolina statutes authorizing local governments to enforce rules on government property, and rules that protect public health.
Since then, errant public smokers may have encountered a red-vested Smoking Response Team of Health Department workers and citizen volunteers, accompanied by a police officer, there to remind everybody that Orange County strives to be smoke-free. The SRT is scheduled to patrol Franklin Street today.
Information about the smoking ban is available on the Orange County Visitors Bureau site.
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