Come next month, smokers beware: If you light up in a public park in Tacoma, you’ll be breaking the law.

By a 6-3 vote, the Tacoma City Council approved late Tuesday an ordinance that makes smoking in any public park in the city illegal.

I don’t smoke. But this makes me want to go to Wright Park and light one up.

I never liked the idea of a restaurant smoking ban, but I couldn’t argue with the logic about the restaurant workers who had to breath in many many times the smoke than a bar patron did, and so reluctantly voted for it.

I would really like to see an allowance for smoking in spaces with a certain amount of ventilation per cubic foot.

But banning it in public parks seems like we’re taking the idea to an extreme. I can’t find any compelling data online that there really is a health risk to a non-smoker in a public park. It looks like after just a couple feet away from a smoker the smoke dissipates to almost non-existent levels. Anyone else have any data that would refute that?

I’m really not convinced at this point there was any reason to infringe on the rights of smokers for this.