CA: Snuffing out smoking in cars with children

Sacramento Bee ^ | August 14, 2006 | Jim Sanders

[calcowgirl]

Targeting a new frontier in the fight against smoking, California lawmakers may ban motorists from lighting up near young passengers.

The measure would mark the first time that Californians would be prohibited from smoking legal tobacco products on private property not open to the public or employees.

No state had passed such a vehicle smoking ban until this year, when Arkansas and Louisiana set a precedent by barring the practice when passengers are under 6 or 13, respectively.

Assemblyman Paul Koretz, a West Hollywood Democrat who proposed California's ban, Assembly Bill 379, said some parents don't seem to know -- or care -- about the dangers of secondhand smoke.

"If you're too stupid to recognize that on your own, then we have to pass a law to tell you, 'Don't be an idiot, don't smoke with your small kid in the car with you,' " Koretz said.

AB 379 makes no exception for vehicles whose windows are open to increase ventilation. It applies to motorists whose passengers are younger than 6 or lighter than 60 pounds.

Violators would be subject to a base fine of up to $100, which could rise to more than $350 through penalty assessments for courts, jails, trauma centers and other programs.

Opponents call AB 379 another example of "nanny government" in which lawmakers intrude into private lives or property rights.

"I think we try to micromanage people's lives to an extent that's getting ridiculous, whether it's health or dietary or lifestyle decisions," said Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla, D-Pittsburg.

Canciamilla predicted that if AB 379 succeeds in limiting smoking in vehicles, other private property will be targeted next.

"The argument would be the same: Why would you let someone smoke in a car with children present? Then, why in an apartment? Or a house?"

[mugs99]

Give 'em time.........

North Platte, Nebraska, Police Chief Martin Gutschenritter wants to arrest parents who smoke in the car when their kids are with them for child abuse, a misdemeanor that carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. Gutschenritter calls smoking around kids "the most insidious form of child abuse," citing Surgeon General Richard Carmona's recent report on secondhand smoke. "If you look at the state statute regarding child abuse, and if you look at the surgeon general's report, we believe that it's a clear violation," he says. "The fact that the injury isn't immediate, we feel is irrelevant."
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[metesky]

Your most assinine post yet...

[Just A Nobody]

Most smokers are addicts.

You really know how to win friends and influence people. Stop the hate-mongering!

[elkfersupper]

The car belongs to me. The title is in my name. I pay the insurance and for most of the gas. I allow my husband to drive it. He does not have his own car because he turned in his lease last year.

Sounds to me like your husband should rethink this entire arrangement.

I know I would.

[mzbzybee]

What?? Comparing sex in public with smoking? Apples and Oranges. I tell you what. There is no way I will honor this law if it passes no way!!! I refuse to be sent to the basement.

[Madame Dufarge]

"If you look at the state statute regarding child abuse, and if you look at the surgeon general's report,

And if you place a mirror on the floor, and stand astride just so, you'll see your center of reason.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

If, for some reason, I ever decide to start smoking and I have kids in the car with me, I'll just put them in that rooftop luggage carrier thing. Isn't that what those are for? ;)

[darkangel82]

Having been in the "foster care" system as a child, I can tell you unequivocally, cigarette smoking was not even on my list of things to fear.

Mine either, and I've been there too, unfortunately.

[Gabz]

The Nebraska Attorney General canned that idea........just until the legislature passes a law to allow such.

[Gabz]

Sounds like a winner to me!!!!!!

[Gabz]

You really need to change your screen name..........MoonBAT is much more suitable to your rambling idiocies.

[Just A Nobody]

Americans are not experiencing the "epidemic of tobacco related disease and death" the anti-smokers claim. If that were true, why would annual death rates decrease in the U.S. as cigarette sales rates increase?

-----------------------------------------Cigarette
Census ------------ Death by---Death--Sales per
Year -- Population--All Cause--Rate%---Billion

1900 -- 75,994,600..1,307,107 - 1.72 ... 2.5
1910 -- 91,972,260..1,351,992 - 1.47 ... 8.6
1920 - 105,710,600..1,374,358 - 1.30 .. 44.6
1930 - 122,775,100..1,387,358 - 1.13 . 119.3
1940 - 131,669,300..1,422,028 - 1.08 . 181.9
1950 - 150,697,400..1,446,695 - 0.96 . 369.8
1960 - 179,323,200..1,703,570 - 0.95 . 484.4
1970 - 203,302,000..1,921,031 - 0.94 . 536.5
1980 - 226,545,800..1,989,841 - 0.88 . 631.5
1990 - 248,709,900..2,162,000 - 0.87 . 525.0

Don't believe the lies!

[383rr]

ROFLMAO!

My God, Madame, you just made my day! An excellent thing to see at the end of the work day.

God, that was good.(And true....)

[Just A Nobody]

ROTFLOL!

[Just A Nobody]

unfortunately

I hear you! ;*(

[elkfersupper]

Too bad ranting about smokers is legal.

Maybe we can change that. Disparaging a minority and all.

You know the routine - "Smokists" "Smokism", etc.

[Just A Nobody]

A dear friend of mine was brought up in the foster care gulag,.....

Great term! Mind if I borrow it on occasion?

Though I suppose there are some here who'd forgive her abusive child molesting foster "parents" as long as they didn't smoke.

Yes, I suppose there are many that would. I am not one of them, however.

[mugs99]

ROFL!!!

[Madame Dufarge]

Thank you, sir.

I live to serve. :-)

[mzbzybee]

What else I found out was that although my mom had quit smoking over 30 years ago, they count her death as smoking related. Now, how do you figure that.