Smoking ban in Newport’s Cliff Walk

Rhode Island – The smokers who choose to walk Newport’s iconic Cliff Walk route can no longer light up. A new ban instituted last month applies to the 3½-mile public walkway that runs between the Atlantic Ocean and some of the city’s most spectacular Gilded Age mansions. Attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors a year, it is Rhode Island’s most visited tourist attraction.

Cigarette butts made up 30 percent of the debris nonprofit organization Clean Ocean Access found during several beach cleanups in 2014, said Dave McLaughlin, executive director and co-founder of the nonprofit.

Five cities in Rhode Island — Central Falls, Charlestown, Warren, West Warwick, and Woonsocket — ban smoking in municipal parks. Charlestown and North Providence have banned smoking at city beaches.