Mixed clouds and sun with scattered thunderstorms. High 83F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Scattered thunderstorms. Low 78F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.

This week, the Florida Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee, advanced a bill - SB 224 - that allows counties and municipalities - like the Village of Key Biscayne or Miami-Dade County - to further restrict smoking within the boundaries of public beaches and public parks.

According to a report in the Daytona Beach News Journal, the bill cleared the committee once a change was made to exempt smoking cigars that do not contain filters or plastic tips and smoking pipe tobacco.

Bill sponsor Joe Gruters, representing Sarasota, said “cigars and pipe smoking is such a small portion” of the problem.

Controlling beach pollution was a motivation for the bill, according to Gruters. “It's the filters, those plastic filters within the cigarettes that cause the environmental pollution as they make their way into the waterways.”

A sister Florida House of Representatives bill - HB 105 - does not include the cigar and pipe smoking exemption.