The air is about to get cleaner around playgrounds in all state parks including Moraine State Park.

The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources on Friday announced a ban on the use of all tobacco products within 30 feet of playgrounds in state parks. The ban includes all forms of tobacco, e-cigarettes and vaping.

The DCNR is enacting the ban as a part of the Department of Health's “Young Lungs at Play” program.

“State parks is doing their part to take part in that to promote healthy air around playground areas,” said Dustin Drew, Moraine State Park manager.

The new ban is an extension of a policy the DCNR adopted a few years ago prohibiting tobacco use at swimming beaches in state parks.

“It started a few years ago with clean air beaches for swimming beach areas. This is a further expansion of that,” Drew said. “We did the beaches one at a time to roll it out. we got a lot of positive feedback. It's a nice progressive pattern to expand it to playground areas.”

This is an excerpt from a larger article that appeared in Sunday's Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print to read the full article.