Smoking in cars, should it be banned?

[pinklightbulb]

In Australia, smoking is banned in cars when you are carrying minors (under 18) only. But it is banned in pubs, bus shelters, outdoor dining areas in some places... the list goes on. Soon nobody will be able to smoke anywhere and then where will the government get all their tax revenue from? They are only shooting themselves in the foot banning smoking absolutely everywhere.

 

[marley2580]

It seems to me that it will just be another useless law that would not be obeyed or enforced. Mobile use in cars has been banned but I can see people using them all the time while driving!

 

[pinklightbulb]

It's enforced here, you get an on-the-spot fine for smoking in cars with a minor inside.

 

[mum22ttc#3]

Problem is if you ban smoking in a car for the sake of children or passangers then you would have to bann it in the homes as well as a car is an extention to your property and who would be able to inforce a ban in your home, I rtealy cant see police making random house calls to check your not smoking with children in the house.

The only way they could ban it along these lines is to do an all out ban with I doubt will ever happen as the government get way more money from tax on sales then they pay out for smoking related hospital treatment.
Plus would then open a whole can of worms about then you would have to ban cars to stop people getting asthma from polution and fast food to staop people getting obese and costing government money in treatment, banning alcohol and so on.

The only way around baning smoking in the car without people shouting about personal choice is to take the same view on it as driving while using a mobile, eating, reading, drinking (non alcoholic drinks) ie they are a distraction and cause you to take your hands of the wheel and your eyes and mind off driving.
Its the only realistic way about it.
Yes smoking in a car with children in it is discusting but thats more of a welfare and social services issue rather then a law one.
You cant use the exscuse to ban it in cars on the grounds that others may one day get into your car and there will be chemicals in the seats and such as then what about people who enter your homes.Before you know it there will be lawyers writting up wavers stating " I agree upon entering your home and or car that I will not now or in the futer sue on grounds of possible chemical contamination from ciggerette pathegines" and no one can enter tell your covered

I think it would be hard to enforce this if it were to be brought in (no smoking in cars with minors) as obviously it is unrealistic to ban it from peoples houses with kids in, but I kind of see it as a start iykwim.

I do see it as a law issue though as well as a social and a welfare one, the same way I would if a parent were enforcing their child to drink alcohol for example, as thats how I see it. A parent smoking in their car with a child inside is basically enforcing their child to smoke with them.

The bit I bolded, totally agree with If your seriously that worried about this then don't buy the car. Personally I think that it is a silly argument.

 

[mum22ttc#3]

I don't think it would be simple to enforce a ban, at all. I just think there is far more grounds for doing so for smoking than almost any other "vice" I can think of.

I don't agree that smoking is in the same category as obesity and alcoholism. Out of all the vices, it is the only one that physically harms those around it. You choose to eat poorly and not exercise and deal with the consequences of obesity, but your fat cells aren't going to jump out of your body and attach themselves to me. You choose to drink too much, but the liquor going into your body isn't pickling my liver.
With smoking, the contamination is not containable to the smoker. You choose to smoke and you choose for me, too.

So right there, that's why my voice should be louder than the smoker's. I don't want MY choice taken from me.

I've already addressed the other point that keeps being brought up: air pollution from cars and industry - unless you are living directly off the land in a cave somewhere, you are contributing to the pollution on our planet. It is impossible not to in our industrialised society. That is a common problem created by the common to be solved by the common. Smoking is an individual imposing their unhealthy choice on everyone else.

And on another point:
We've had smoking bans in restaurants and pubs here for years and the surveys they did in my province showed a subsequent overall increase in business for those establishments since the ban was imposed.

I do when the whole NHS issue and the drain on it is brought into it, Obesity and Alcholism are as much a drain on the NHS as smoking is.

I also do think that there are effects of both that do affect other people, physically and emotionally, an obese mother dies because of an illness related to it, it has a knock on effect onto her children and beyond. A drink driver kills 4 other people in a road accident, alcohol has had a physical affect on 4 people, emotionally lots more. OK I realise this doesn't happen as much as the effects from smoking, but it does happen. Should we ban this for everyone just because there are a few that choose to not be responsible with junk food and alcohol? Like I said before, where does it end.

 

[Lightworker]

In Australia, smoking is banned in cars when you are carrying minors (under 18) only. But it is banned in pubs, bus shelters, outdoor dining areas in some places... the list goes on. Soon nobody will be able to smoke anywhere and then where will the government get all their tax revenue from? They are only shooting themselves in the foot banning smoking absolutely everywhere.

Re taxes gained from tobacco companies, some might argue that it is a false economy because for all the income earned, it also contributes to the expenditure, as mentioned before via the health service, decreased productivity, loss of life etc.

There's a reason the NHS spends so much on smoking cessation, we have smoking cessation nurses, midwives, everything. Why would they allocate so much resource to smoking cessation if smoking was not costing them alot?

In any case, as we are reminded often, not everything should be about money. Ethics should be the priority consideration. Its not ethical to allow people to smoke at the expense of others.

 

[BlackBerry25]

Maybe they are doing it, because of what you said, ethics, not money.

I would expect my health care system to be anti smoking. That's kind of the whole point of it...to be healthy.

 

[Dopeyjopey]

Urgh. I don't agree with it all. It is basically the government wanting smokers to pay the premium taxes when buying cigarettes but then making it as hard as possible to smoke anywhere. The health risks are why the tax is so high, surely?

How can it be legal to buy cigarettes, when everyone knows they can be harmful, yet illegal to smoke them in certain places because you might cause harm?

They need to just ban cigarettes altogether and show they care about peoples' health, not the money aspect.

 

[Ramen]

Nicotine has been successfully used and documented as a treatment for tourettes. I can't vouch for anything anyone else claims it to be beneficial for.

Is it given through smoke, though? Or through a patch?

Patch, obviously, though many in the tourettes community turned to nicotine vaporizers or analog cigarettes due to the cost of a nicotine patch.

 

[JASMAK]

It is enforced here too...and also it is enforced in parks etc. It is harder, but we (and by we, I mean, I work in bylaw enforcement) do take calls daily and officers are dispatched and tickets are written. I think it's good. I don't think parents should make a choice for a child such as polluting their lungs with cancer causing, life debilitating (with asthma) toxins. That should not be a parenting 'choice'.

 

[pinklightbulb]

Re an earlier comment, I don't know anything about the NHS, but we have a similar sort of system I think.

 

[youngmummy94]

In Australia it is banned when children under 15 are in the car.

 

[pinklightbulb]

^ Ah thought it was 18 or 16, one of the two. Maybe different in different states?

 

[youngmummy94]

Oh, i'm not 100% on the exact age. I actually think its 16? But I'm in NSW so not sure.

 

[JackiePed]

This is such a tough one.... I hate smoking with a passion, and I hated that it was inflicted on me as a child. I hated how sick it made me feel when I'd breathe in the car while my mom smoked.... I hated how everyone thought I was a smoker because I always smelled like it.
I'd love to see it banned.... Part of me thinks, "if we can make smoking marijuana against the law, why is it such a huge 'rights' issue to make smoking cigarettes against the law? " Marijuana causes less health problems, and alcohol alters the mind just as much as marijuana does. So why do we accept the banning of marijuana and other drugs, but would scream 'individual rights' if alcohol or cigarettes were?

But...the other part of me, though I strongly believe in personal responsibility for your health... Realizes that were we to make the 'drain on healthcare' argument, then we would, as others have mentioned, need to ban alcohol and processed crap foods as well.... And the enforcement itself would be a drain on our resources.

And.... I realized that nowhere in this post did I answer the original question. Lol. So....
If cigarettes are not banned altogether, then smoking in your car should not be banned unless/until they ban eating and drinking in your car as well.
But... It should.... Without a doubt....be banned if there is a minor in the car. I hated....HATED that being forced on me as a child, with no way to make the choice for myself. Even at a very young age, I understood it was making me sick.

 

[pinklightbulb]

The UK and US should follow our lead Ban it with under 16s in the car and make sure it's enforced and that's one problem to do with smoking solved anyway. I smoke but would never in the car or any enclosed space with Eamon in it.

 

[smokey]

But again if you ban it in a car then you would also have to ban it in the home with a child, yes I know its not as confined in the home but then if your sitting in a livingroom with say 2 adults smoking then that cant be much different to sitting in a car smoking with the window open.
There is just no way it can be inforced in the home, whos to know what your doing? so you cant have one banned without the other.

Yes I think it should be banned in cars with a child, as a smoker myself I thinkits vile to put a child through that, I would never dream of smoking in the car or in the house even when LO isnt around.

 

[BlackBerry25]

We have it banned here but not banned in the home.

 

[Nibblenic]

I dont see why it cannot be banned in just the car. I think it would be best to put it through on the same grounds as mobile phone use, with the same sort of punishments.

I think the benifits of seeing health improvement would be a good bonous

 

[mum22ttc#3]

^^ I think that they could quite easily put it through on them grounds, just not under no smoking as a whole ifykwim. I don't personally agree with it but I also don't see how it isn't possible if you grouped it under the same law as no mobile, no eating etc.

However as I said before I do think it should be banned when there is a minor in the car, and not under any other law or trying to wrap it into another one, just what it is.