Bristol Township, PA Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)

Article III of Chapter 167 of the Bristol Township Code was adopted by the Township Council on 7-16-2020 as Ord. No. 2020-03. Section 167-8 prohibits the smoking or carrying of any lighted cigar, cigarette, pipe, e-cigarette, vape pen or tobacco of any form, and it also prohibits the use of smokeless tobacco. That list reaches vaping devices and chew as well as burning products, so a vape pen in a ballfield dugout is treated the same as a lit cigarette.

The ban applies in all Bristol Township parks, in park facilities and in adjacent parking lots. A smoker cannot step out of the playground area to a lot beside it and light up, because the lots next to the parks are inside the prohibition. The park article contains no designated smoking areas.

The same chapter also covers two other settings. Section 167-6 bars smoking and tobacco use in front of and inside all Township-owned or leased buildings, and there the Township can designate certain exterior areas where smoking is permitted. Article I, which dates from 2-20-1990 and was amended in 2020, deals with Bristol Township School District property and bars smoking by students in school buildings, on school grounds and on school buses within Bristol Township.

Enforcement runs through the District Justice rather than a ticket schedule. A person charged under the park article answers a summary offense before a district justice, and the Township recovers prosecution costs on top of any fine.