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California jumps on ban-wagon re smoking in cars
Filed under: Places To Go, Health & Safety: Babies, Development/Milestones: Babies, In The News, Alcohol & Drugs
"Who is the state to tell you how you can and cannot raise your children?" That's the question Robert Best, state coordinator of the Smoker's Club Inc., a smokers' rights group, asks. Sure, if my kid comes home with anything less than an A on his report card, it's my right to pour boiling water on him as a punishment, right? And, why should the state be able to stop me from beating him with a baseball bat to make sure he doesn't turn out to be gay or, even worse, republican? And now, California wants to make it illegal to smoke in a car when children are present. The nerve!
The thing is, these are not the same as taking a child to church or buying a little girl a toy truck. Secondhand smoke affects children's actual, physical health, and if the parents cannot make the right decision about what's best for the kids, then the government needs to step in -- for the good of the children and for the good of society. According to the American Lung Association, "Secondhand smoke is responsible for between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections in infants and children under 18 months of age, resulting in between 7,500 and 15,000 hospitalizations each year, and causes 1,900 to 2,700 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) deaths in the United States annually."
I have no problem if you want to smoke. If you're an adult, are aware of the effects, and are willing to forgo the state paying for health care related to problems caused by tobacco, have at it. Just don't try to bring the rest of us along for the ride, and certainly don't involve your kids. I'm all for this bill and hope it becomes law quickly.
The thing is, these are not the same as taking a child to church or buying a little girl a toy truck. Secondhand smoke affects children's actual, physical health, and if the parents cannot make the right decision about what's best for the kids, then the government needs to step in -- for the good of the children and for the good of society. According to the American Lung Association, "Secondhand smoke is responsible for between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections in infants and children under 18 months of age, resulting in between 7,500 and 15,000 hospitalizations each year, and causes 1,900 to 2,700 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) deaths in the United States annually."
I have no problem if you want to smoke. If you're an adult, are aware of the effects, and are willing to forgo the state paying for health care related to problems caused by tobacco, have at it. Just don't try to bring the rest of us along for the ride, and certainly don't involve your kids. I'm all for this bill and hope it becomes law quickly.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
3-26-2007 @ 2:04PM
Julie said...It's about time! I am so tired of hearing smokers complain about their "rights". If your right is a health hazzard to other people in the public, then it isn't a right.
I hope that it ends up that smokers can only smoke in their own homes that don't contain children. If a smoker wants to breath that digusting smoke and smell up his/her own home, great, but don't force the non-smokers (esp. Children) to breathe it.
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3-26-2007 @ 2:05PM
Kate said..."Smokers' rights"? Hilarious. As you can imagine I'm all for any law that makes it harder for this truly harmful, revoting habit to become piss in my pool (and that of anyone else unable to choose).
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3-26-2007 @ 2:32PM
Maureen said...Tough one for me because I'm generally against the ever-increasing number of laws our government imposes on its citizens. I hate to say that I'm with my state on this one. People have been given the information that second-hand smoke is bad for kids -- they've been given the chance to do the right thing and if they still aren't choosing the right thing then we have to protect the kids. My dad used to light up in the house when I was growing up and he smoked in the car all the time with his 7 kids in the car -- windows up on cold or rainy days. It's a wonder we're not all walking around with chronic lung problems. It also set the stage for many of us to become smokers ourselves. Thank goodness I decided to get pregnant and kick the habit.
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3-26-2007 @ 4:33PM
Brenna said...Personally, I don't see how this law is any worse than forcing parents to put their kids in car seats. That's a law, but you don't hear people complaining about their god given right to let their kids crash through the windshield. Of course, maybe they did when it was first proposed, I don't know. My point is, when common sense flies out the window, the law needs to step in to protect those who can't protect themselves.
And I'm speaking as a former smoker who never smoked around my kids, or really anyone else at all. I pretty much limited all my smoking to my own backyard, because I didn't want to impose on anyone.
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3-26-2007 @ 5:25PM
LS said...I'm truly torn on this one. On one hand, I'm all for keeping smoke away from everyone, especially kids.
On the other hand, the Libertarian in me is screaming and beating her head against the walls. I also have to ask, "how will you enforce this?" Will the law have teeth, or will it be like the advent of the seat-belt laws, where the cops said, "we won't stop you if you're not wearing it. We will only cite you if we stop you for something else, like speeding." Eventually, that attitude stopped, and now the cops WILL stop you for not wearing a seat belt. Which makes me angry with the cops for lying in the first place. What a mess.
My opinion is this... if cigarettes are so bad, so horrible, so evil, they should just be banned altogether. But that will never happen, since the government gets WAY too much money off of them.
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3-27-2007 @ 10:19PM
SKL said...I really wish people would voluntarily stop blowing smoke into their kids' lungs. In the car, in the house, in the smoking section of a restaurant, wherever. What are they thinking?
Creating an environment where your child doesn't have healthful air to breathe is a kind of neglect, not much different from leaving a loaded gun in your children's reach. If you neglect your kids beyond a certain point, the government has to step in. I hate government intevention, but not as much as I hate selfish behavior that is well-known to be harmful to children. It's not that hard to have your cigarrette away from your kids.
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