Calif. Bill Would Ban Smoking in Car with Kids

Reuters ^ | April 28, 2004 | Reuters

[DumpsterDiver]

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California could be on its way to becoming the first U.S. state to outlaw smoking in cars or trucks that have children inside.

A bill is being considered in the state Assembly to allow police to stop vehicles if a minor appears to be exposed to smoke from a pipe, cigar, cigarette, or "any other plant."

The bill has the support of the American Lung Association, which points to research showing secondhand smoke can cause cancer, respiratory infections and asthma.

Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh, a Democrat and author of the bill, has referred to a survey by state health officials that found 29 percent of youth in the state had been exposed to secondhand smoke in the prior week.

Opponents say the bill, which last week passed in the Transportation Committee and now heads to the Appropriations Committee, not only encroaches on Constitutional freedoms but demonstrates the intentions of some politicians to eventually ban smoking everywhere in California.

"If the ultimate goal is to ban smoking, then have the courage to come up and say that," said Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy, a Republican in the Democratic-dominated legislative body.

"Show me good science that shows that secondhand smoke is a problem. I don't know that they've proved that," Mountjoy added.

California in 1995 became the first state in the nation to ban smoking in virtually all workplaces, said Paul Knepprath, the vice president of government relations at the American Lung Association of California.

No other state has instituted a sweeping ban on smoking in cars with children present, Knepprath said.

[DumpsterDiver]

A bill is being considered in the state Assembly to allow police to stop vehicles if a minor appears to be exposed to smoke from a pipe, cigar, cigarette, or "any other plant."

Some folks in Sacramento have too much time on their hands.

[DumpsterDiver]

If this bill ever passes I would suggest that children ride in the trunk. Or just strap 'em to the hood of the car.

[Prime Choice]

And once they pass the smoking-in-the-car-with-kids bill, then they'll go after anyone who smokes in their own home.

California: tanned totalitarianism.

[Lokibob]

"Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh, a Democrat and author of the bill, has referred to a survey by state health officials that found 29 percent of youth in the state had been exposed to secondhand smoke in the prior week."

100% of them had been exposed to second hand driving.  And it killed more in one week, than second hand smoke all year.

[edayna]

Let me just ask you two questions. One, do you smoke? Two, have you, as a child, been forced to ride in a car with parents who smoke?

I was. I experienced long car trips - two days in the car, from OH to FL, both parents smoking, windows up and a/c running. And my parents never understood why I had so little energy and ran out of breath so quickly.

I quit smoking in January this year. I have two children but I never smoked in the car with them - okay, rarely. I'm ashamed, really.

When they come home from other kids' houses where parents smoke, I can smell it on them. I can tell, when I volunteer at school, which kids' parents smoke. When you quit, you can tell and you hate it. I must have smelled like that my whole childhood. It's awful.

Thank the LORD I'm not doing that to my kids anymore.

[Brimack34]

I am not for this at all. But I wish some people would open their window when they have a car full of people or kids.
Just out of respect, I see it to often.

[dfwgator]

Are they going to ban flatuating in cars as well?

[clee1]

That's next.

[DumpsterDiver]

One, do you smoke?

Yes.

Two, have you, as a child, been forced to ride in a car with parents who smoke?

Yeah, most of the time. I don't remember, though, if it ever bothered me.

[EGPWS]

Are they going to ban flatuating in cars as well?

Now THATS an idea!

Why, if I lived in California I would run for office, with conviction, on that platform!

T. McClintock has got to be wringing his hands raw with the nonsensical promotion within the government of California.

[Brimack34]

Jezzo bezzo all I said was open a window for pete's sake.

[Ramius]

Everybody that smokes in a car, opens a window to draw the smoke out. This is true whether anybody else is in the car or not.

What a bunch of control freaks. That's all it is.

Carrying a child in a car --at all-- is many times the risk to their life and health. I suppose that's next.

[pete anderson]

Road trips were always rough with the Windows closed and mom & dad puffing away as we trekked across America. My wife who smokes never smokes in the house or car when the kids are present.

[NaughtiusMaximus]

What we see here is nothing new. This is the old "progressive" ban-your-way-to-paradise Puritanism which flared up a century ago and brought us Prohibition. Notice how feminism and prohibitionism seem to go hand in hand?

Now here's a little ditty from Prohibition days:

We never eat cookies because they have yeast
And one little bite turns a man to a beast.
Oh, can you imagine a sadder disgrace
than a man in the gutter with crumbs on his face?

We never eat fruitcakes because they have rum
And one little bite turns a man to a bum.
Oh, can you imagine a sorrier sight
Than a man eating fruitcake until he gets tight?

Away, away with rum by gum, rum by gum, rum by gum.
Away, away with rum by gum, rum by gum, rum by gum.
Away, away with rum.

(And we all know how successful this project was.)

Yup, there are lots of sunnybeaches in 'ol sunny SoCal.

[Jack Black]

Saw this in the elevator going to the garage in a building owned by a major Cali law firm in Mountain View: "No smoking in the garage or in cars while in the garage". Talk about paranoid!

[Dianna]

And once they pass the smoking-in-the-car-with-kids bill, then they'll go after anyone who smokes in their own home.

They'd better make an exception for my bedroom. I've heard rumors that they can't legislate what happens there.

[bikerman]

What if the kids smoke but the parents dont and we are all in the same car now what?