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Should car smoking be banned when children are present?

Poll

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-26074476
(edited 4 years ago)

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Reply 1
Avatar for Arbolus
Arbolus
13
If the passengers were adults then they'd have the option to get some other form of transport. However, for children, all too often they've got no choice but to be driven by an adult, and therefore they've got no way to avoid the smoke. Forcing a child to breath in their parent's smoke should be treated as nothing less than child abuse.
Reply 2
Avatar for Pegasus2
Pegasus2
16
Children have no choice.

If not for the health issue then the traffic safety one.
Yes, setting fire to a car is dangerous enough, but putting your lips over the exhaust pipe is even worse.
Reply 4
Avatar for Olie
Olie
20
Original post by Arbolus
If the passengers were adults then they'd have the option to get some other form of transport. However, for children, all too often they've got no choice but to be driven by an adult, and therefore they've got no way to avoid the smoke. Forcing a child to breath in their parent's smoke should be treated as nothing less than child abuse.


Yep, couldn't agree more, I really don't see how anyone could argue against such a law, smoker or non-smoker.
No.



Politicians need to get themselves to ****.
(edited 10 years ago)
Of course it should be. What sort of incompetent excuse for a parent smokes in front of their children in the car... The thing that's most baffling about this is that there shouldn't need to be a law put in place. It's bloody common sense. The day we need to start placing laws upon common sense in this broken excuse for a society is a bad day.
Reply 7
Avatar for Swanbow
Swanbow
19
I think that our politicians have more important issues to focus on than this. It is a waste of parliaments time trying to control society's behaviour.

Not against the law per se, but the people who smoke with their kids in the car are the same people who smoke around them in the house. Is saving children from second hand smoke during a car trip really going to make that big a difference?
Reply 8
Avatar for Ripper-Roo
Ripper-Roo
The parents should ask the children what they want.

Nothing wrong with people smoking in front of others, along as the others are consulted first
Reply 9
Avatar for Mackay
Mackay
17
Original post by Ripper-Roo
The parents should ask the children what they want.

Nothing wrong with people smoking in front of others, along as the others are consulted first


You are joking?

A five-year-old child isn't going to know the effects of their parents smoking in close proximity to them, they will likely think its a foodstuff or something similar. What child would say "no" if their parents asked them something?

Ridiculous. Of course it should be banned. Policing it won't happen, though.
I don't think it's a very sensible thing to do, but I don't think Government should have a hand in dictating peoples actions to such an extent. Smoke in the car = smoke in the house - at least people are more likely to crack a window smoking in the car.
No. Great idea but not really enforceable so pointless.

Posted from TSR Mobile
It it will be difficult to enforce, but the it should be common sense to not smoke in the prescence of children any way.
Yes. Even as an adult smoker it's not nice to be in a car full of smoke. My mam's worst memory of growing up is having to sit in the car with my grampa chain smoking with the windows closed.
Reply 14
Avatar for Steezy
Steezy
15
Any parent that smokes with their child in the car shouldn't be allowed children. They clearly have no form of consideration for their child's health that it's borderline neglectful.
The main health risk due to cigarette smoke is lung cancer. This risk increases with age; it is almost zero in young people. There is less than a one in a million chance of an under 30 year old contracting lung cancer each year. Since we know that the increased risk of lung cancer due to smoke inhalation falls off after the exposure is removed, and passive smoking that occurs only while inside a car is likely to result in only a very low level of exposure, smoking in cars with children is unlikely to contribute much if anything to lung cancer incidence.

If the goal then is actually to protect children rather than to make smoking more inconvenient for adults, this policy does not make sense.

This is one instance where the "common sense" is misleading. Children are at very little risk from smoke inhalation. It would make more sense to ban teenagers from smoking in a car full of middle aged or elderly people!
Original post by Observatory
The main health risk due to cigarette smoke is lung cancer. This risk increases with age; it is almost zero in young people. There is less than a one in a million chance of an under 30 year old contracting lung cancer each year. Since we know that the increased risk of lung cancer due to smoke inhalation falls off after the exposure is removed, and passive smoking that occurs only while inside a car is likely to result in only a very low level of exposure, smoking in cars with children is unlikely to contribute much if anything to lung cancer incidence.

If the goal then is actually to protect children rather than to make smoking more inconvenient for adults, this policy does not make sense.

This is one instance where the "common sense" is misleading. Children are at very little risk from smoke inhalation. It would make more sense to ban teenagers from smoking in a car full of middle aged or elderly people!


but they're more likely to start smoking later on if they're passive smokers...
Reply 17
Avatar for Mackay
Mackay
17
Original post by Steezy
Any parent that smokes with their child in the car shouldn't be allowed children. They clearly have no form of consideration for their child's health that it's borderline neglectful.


This. I'm a smoker but in no way would I dare smoke when driving when I was ALONE, let alone had my child in the car.
Original post by Mr.Obsessed
but they're more likely to start smoking later on if they're passive smokers...

Is that true? I sat in a smoke filled car as a child and found it pretty repulsive. I actually think it's an anti-social thing to do, like playing rap music on the radio, I just don't think either should be illegal.

Regardless, the justification advanced is that smoke is directly harmful to children and I'm not sure it is. If you want to ban smoking in cars because it might somehow indirectly encourage adults to voluntarily choose to smoke you might as well ban John Wayne movies.
Original post by Observatory
The main health risk due to cigarette smoke is lung cancer. This risk increases with age; it is almost zero in young people. There is less than a one in a million chance of an under 30 year old contracting lung cancer each year. Since we know that the increased risk of lung cancer due to smoke inhalation falls off after the exposure is removed, and passive smoking that occurs only while inside a car is likely to result in only a very low level of exposure, smoking in cars with children is unlikely to contribute much if anything to lung cancer incidence.

If the goal then is actually to protect children rather than to make smoking more inconvenient for adults, this policy does not make sense.

This is one instance where the "common sense" is misleading. Children are at very little risk from smoke inhalation. It would make more sense to ban teenagers from smoking in a car full of middle aged or elderly people!


But obviously lung-cancer isn't the only health implication. For instance, various respiratory problems are often associated with smoking.

Given that various health professionals support a ban, you have to ask yourself, why?

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