An assessment of smoke-free signage in gainesville public parks

Background: States such as Florida have pre-emptive clause legislation concerning smoke-free air, which does not allow local legislatives to create city ordinances regarding smoking in outdoor venues such as public parks. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether Smoke-Free Zone signage posted in park amenities (playgrounds, picnic pavilions, restrooms) would change smoking behaviors of park patrons. Signs were a suggestion to park patrons and there were no consequences for smoking.

Methods: A time-series quasi-experimental design was used where data were collected at the same time and order every week within amenities (n=10) from four parks. Cigarette butts were collected (n = 2,692) at park amenities at baseline and after the intervention was introduced. Data were collected pre and post intervention until stable trends emerged, which was established at 6 weeks.

Results: Due to not having normally distributed data, nonparametric Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to test the strength of the mean differences. The analysis showed that smoking at seven out of the ten individual amenities decreased, with data being significant at p = 0.028. Grouped amenities (playgrounds, picnic pavilions, restrooms) did not experience a statistically significant change.

Conclusion: This study examines some of the first evidence of the impact of non-law enforced smoke-free zone signage in public parks using a reproducible measure. The implications of this study are important for states that have pre-emptive clause legislation concerning smoke-free air. A follow-up study is recommended to assess results over time.