Philadelphia is home to some fantastic outdoor concert venues, including the city-owned Mann Center and Festival Pier at Penn's Landing. Both attract top-selling performers from around the world and draw tens of thousands of people during their summer concert series. But the thrill of seeing your favorite bands play al fresco is significantly inhibited by incessant smoking by other concertgoers. 

Although the Mann Center states that it is smoke-free on its website, http://www.manncenter.org/about/faq#t26n438 this policy is not at all enforced. Festival Pier permits smoking cigarettes and e-cigarettes, but no other drug paraphernalia. The reality is that a large portion of attendees chainsmoke cigarettes, cigars, e-cigarettes, and marijuana throughout these events.

Unlike being able to pass by a smoker on a city street or in a public park, concertgoers in a crowded venue do not have the ability to move around to avoid secondhand smoke and vaping. It is everywhere. 

The hazards of smoking--from asthma and emphysema to chronic obstructed pulmonary disease and dozens of types of cancer--are well-known and documented. It is not right to subject non-smokers, especially children and people with existing health issues, to secondhand smoke for hours at a time when they are trying to enjoy a concert. The right to breathe clean air should always supersede the right to smoke. Because these two venues are both city-owned properties, the city must enact and enforce bans on smoking of any kind at the Mann Center and Festival Pier.