New York City’s workplace smoking ban six years ago drove cigarette and cigar puffers outdoors. But soon some of the outdoors may be off limits, too: The city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, said Monday that he would seek to ban smoking at city parks and beaches.Dr. Farley said the ban — which officials said may require the approval of the City Council, but could possibly be done through administrative rule-making by the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation — was part of a broader strategy to further curb smoking rates, which have fallen in recent years. The proposal, however, seemed to catch Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg off guard.
On Monday night, the mayor, who has championed antismoking programs but also is running for re-election, issued a statement that did not disavow the proposal but appeared to qualify it, saying he wanted “to see if smoking in parks has a negative impact on people’s health.”
He added, “It may not be logistically possible to enforce a ban across thousands of acres, but there may be areas within parks where restricting smoking can protect health.”
The City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, whose support could be crucial, said she would want the Council to hold hearings on the matter. She said that fines should be modest and not intended primarily to punish, and that any ban should make clear whether areas like boardwalks are affected.
“Conceptually, that’s an idea I’m very, very interested in and open to,” she said of Dr. Farley’s proposal.
Such bans are still rare, though growing in number. A number of municipalities — particularly in California — have banned smoking at outdoor parks, playgrounds and beaches. In 2007, Los Angeles extended its smoking ban, which already covered beaches and playgrounds, to include municipal parks. Later that year, Chicago banned smoking at its beaches and playgrounds, though smoking is still allowed in many parks. This year, California lawmakers took up a measure to prohibit smoking in all state parks and parts of state beaches.
The proposal was contained on Page 10 of a 41-page document, “Take Care New York 2012,” that put forth health policy goals for the next three years including cutting obesity, H.I.V. transmission and drug and alcohol abuse. The antismoking strategy would also include pressing for higher local, state and federal taxes on tobacco and urging organizations and businesses in the city to reject financing and sponsorship from the tobacco industry.
Mr. Bloomberg, who smoked as a young man, faced furious criticism from restaurant and bar owners in 2002 when, in his first year in office, he reached a deal with the City Council on legislation banning smoking in virtually every indoor public or commercial area, including most bars. (Smoking had been banned in most restaurants in 1995.)
But the ban, which took effect in 2003, has since gained widespread acceptance and has been credited with helping drive down the percentage of adults in the city who smoke to 15.8 in 2008, from 21.5 percent in 2002.
The New York City proposal would affect more than 1,700 parks, playgrounds and recreational facilities, as well as the city’s seven beaches, which span 14 miles of shoreline. The proposal drew praise from public health advocates and criticism from one of the nation’s biggest tobacco manufacturers.
“The issues with secondhand smoke are very real, and the majority of the population today doesn’t want to be breathing in tobacco smoke, whether indoors or outdoors,” said Dr. David A. Kessler, who was commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration from 1990 to 1997. “While undoubtedly some will think this is going too far, 10 years from now, we’ll look back and ask how could it have been otherwise.”
Cheryl G. Healton, president and chief executive of the American Legacy Foundation, the smoking prevention group that was created as part of the 1998 master settlement between the tobacco industry and 46 state governments, also applauded the proposal.
“There is no redeeming value in smoking at beaches or parks,” she said in a statement. “Anyone who has sat behind someone smoking a stogie can tell you that. The health risks are real. Secondhand smoke is deadly.”
David Sutton, a spokesman for the cigarette maker Philip Morris USA, which is part of the Altria Group, said the company supported a ban on smoking in public buildings, public transportation and many areas of the workplace, as well as areas like elevators where smoking would be a fire hazard.
“We maintain, however, that complete bans go too far,” Mr. Sutton said in a statement. “We believe that smoking should be permitted outdoors except in very particular circumstances, such as outdoor areas primarily designed for children.”
Interviews on Monday suggested that smokers were, unsurprisingly, cool to the idea, while nonsmokers seemed to favor it.
“In this world, the people who have the power always try and make rules for the other people,” said Ismael Bah, 37, a salesman at J & R Music World, who was smoking Marlboros on a park bench near City Hall. “It makes sense to ban smoking inside, but smoking outside? Come on.”
Peter Prince, 55, an account executive at J & R who lives in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, said the city could at least designate smoking areas within parks. “I try to be considerate if I’m sitting next to somebody not to bother them when I smoke,” he said. “Occasionally it does happen that I light up and somebody moves away and I feel bad.”
Adele Jeune, 47, a home health aide from East New York, Brooklyn, does not smoke and had no objection to a ban. “I love clean air,” said Ms. Jeune, who was sitting on a bench in Union Square. “And if I go somewhere like this, I want to smell clean air.”
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