Child Car Smoking Ban ?

[mikey4444]

Labour will today, in the House of Lords, try to start the process to ban smoking in cars with children inside them today ::

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25939908

Seems like a sensible idea to me, although the tobacco lobby predictably don't agree. ( surprise, surprise ! ) Anybody here on AB think that smoking in a car with children is a good thing ?

[pixie373]

I think it's a shame people need to be told to protect their children, but if it saves a few health problems, it would be worth it. I don't think laws should be avoided just because they are difficult to enforce. That really isn't the point.

[mikey4444]

I suspect that we are not so far from each other on this one LG ! But it angers me when some people give the excuse that because we can't be 100% responsive in stopping laws being broken, we shouldn't even bother to pass the legislation in the first place.

I have no idea, nor do I expect do you either, what effect smoking has on a child. But the argument that second-hand smoking isn't really very bad has been lost for some time now. It is unlikely that an adult would only smoke one cigarette a week, when a child is in the car. Smokers are addicts and if they are going to do it one day a week, then they will do it all the time.

Smokers themselves are now a minority in Britain, so it would seem safe to assume that smokers that smoke in the car with their kids are an even smaller minority. But I think its worth while passing this legislation, even if it only saves a few childrens health...its just common sense !

[sherrardk]

Smoking whilst there are children in the car is one of my biggest pet hates. Not really sure how feckless and dim a parent would have to be to do so but you can't legislate for all the stupid people who are around.

[viv38]

Well said sherr ....

[aelmpvw]

selfish parents who insist on smoking while their children are in the car will not be deterred by legislation

[jeffa]

I sometimes give lifts to friends who are smokers on long drives and we have to stop every hour or so so that they can have a cigarette. Even with Tic Tacs or Polos, the car still stinks. There was a story in the local papers recently where a woman living in New Zealand "could" not return home to her father's funeral because she couldn't go without a cigarette long enough to make the flight.

It's akin to a disability, IMO. I think the ongoing effort to make smokers feel increasingly like social pariahs can only be a good thing in the long run.

[BRIGHT SPARK]

Too little too late, IMO.The parents in question will have smoked whilst pregnant,smoked in the family home, etc,..... so the kids are already on death row....according to the 'experts'.
Smoking in a moving vehicle should be banned for the same reasons given for banning cellphones.

[DrFilth]

some of you will be wanting to ban kellogs next
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gq5WqzUJbI