Posted on 12/16/2005 10:57:51 AM PST by kingattax
Anti-smoking activists who are driving cigarettes from public places across the country are now targeting private homes -- especially those with children.
Their efforts so far have contributed to regulations in three states -- Maine, Oklahoma and Vermont -- forbidding foster parents from smoking around children. Parental smoking also has become a critical point in some child-custody cases, including ones in Virginia and Maryland.
In a highly publicized Virginia case, a judge barred Caroline County resident Tamara Silvius from smoking around her children as a condition for child visitation. Mrs. Silvius, a waitress at a truck stop in Doswell, Va., calls herself "highly disappointed" with the court's ruling.
"I'm an adult. Who is anybody to tell me I can't smoke or drink?" she said in an interview yesterday.
An appeals court upheld the ruling, but not before one judge raised questions about the extent to which a court should become involved in parental rights and whether certain behavior is harmful or simply not in a child's best interest. Mrs. Silvius says she complied with the decision by altering her smoking habits.
"My children know not to come around when I'm on the front porch with my morning coffee, tending to my cows or out in my garden, because I'm having a cigarette," she said. Still, she thinks this was not a matter for the courts because it was not proven that she posed a risk to her children's health.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
They already came for the heroin and the cocaine addicts.
I'm not surprised. After this it will be children who are not adopted. Then they will give themselves the right to break down your door if they suspect you of smoking (think I'm kidding?).
Leftism is a mental disease.
No kidding. She's actually bi-polar?
Stress is a known cause of upper respiratory problems in both children and adults. I started getting chronic bronchitis around the time my parents transferred me from private to public school. My youngest daughter was diagnosed with asthma within two months of moving in with her father. When she was living with chain smoking mommy, there weren't any problems.
I don't smoke in the house any more, because my bf loathes cigarette smoke, plus I'm trying to cut down. Do you remember years ago, there was a study done on why so many poor children had upper respiratory problems? They narrowed it down to cockroach infestations. Not smoking.
Speaking of taxation, there will be a measure on the ballot next November, to raise taxes on cigarettes. A pack will cost smokers somewhere around 7 bucks a pack in the people's republic of Kalifornistan, if it passes. The government cannot afford to make tobacco products illegal.
My father was old enough to remember when those substances were legal, and sold at the neighborhood pharmacy. Back then, you were responsible for what you chose to put in your body, and any consequences resulting from their use. We all know how well prohibition of alcohol turned out.
I'm sure happy I am past all of this.
My hubby and I both smoked. Our daughter started smoking at age 16. She is now in her early 30's. Healthy as can be and still smokes as well as HER hubby.
There is no one to tell me that I can smoke around them in my own home. There would be war if there was. LOL!
California lawmakers suck. They banned smoking everywhere but still can't balance their budget with the cigarette tax dollars. Well! They shouldn't have both!
Maine: Do not smoke if your a foster parent! The DHS says so! It's ok if you sprawl on the couch at night drunk though!
DHS creates smoking rules for foster homes, vehicles
2-26-04 - article here
Notice: Kids standing. Convertible. NO SEAT BELTS OR BOOSTER SEATS.
But WOW! The man is not SMOKING! heh!
The truth lies somewhere in between those smokers who say there is absolutely no health consequences from smoking and those who say it is an instantaneous deadly act.
I am inclined to believe the medical data about increased risks of premature death from smoking. The more one smokes, the higher the odds.
And with that know-it-all attitude, they'll probably hold your wake in a phone booth.
Our quarrel is with the junk science used to stigmatize second hand smoke and the involvement of the courts in what are, after all, legal behaviors.
Obviously there is some risk associated with secondhand smoke. Again, I think the truth lies somewhere in between from no health risks to dropping dead on the spot. It would seem to me that workers in smoke filled bars without any ventilation, would be at a higher risk than workers in smoke free bars. I wouldn't have a problem sitting in a smoke filled bar for an hour or so, but would day after day.
For the record, most of us (smokers) don't care whether you have a problem with smoke filled bars or not. Many of us smoke more in an effort to get the prissy types to leave anyway.
Fact: Studies that measured actual exposure by having non-smokers wear monitors indicate even this low estimate is exaggerated. Actual exposure (for people who live and/or work in smoky environments) is about six cigarettes per year. (See also the study by Oak Ridge National Laboratories.)
conclusions.
NEWSFLASH! This just in: "We're all gonna die!". Blackbird.
I'm still waiting for the answers to my questions to misterrob---guess I shouldn't hold my breath.
Don't know if that's what did it, but something did.
Physicians used to prescribe cigarettes for adult asthma sufferers, as well.
I think we would see a lot more instances in which tobacco were suggested to treat a number of illnesses, conditions, if it weren't so politically incorrect.
I have exactly two rules regarding smoking: no one does it inside my house, and no one does it inside my car. Anywhere else, I can take a hike if I don't like the smoke. Too bad there are so many busybodies in this country.
You will NOT find any smoking FReeper IN here that will ever say that smoking is good for us! Not ever!
Some people don't want to take the risk even at those levels. They want zero risk. I am not one of those people. They have a better chance of getting killed or maimed out on the highway than by second hand smoke.
Don't hold your breath. 
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