It's not the smoke; it's the butt that blows back in the car and hits your kid in the teeth.
You said: It's not the smoke; it's the butt that blows back in the car and hits your kid in the teeth.
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Full disclosure, I am a non-smoker child of two smokers (didn't keep my sister from smoking, but my brother and I never have been inclined to smoke). I don't care if others smoke, and I can tolerate, but don't really enjoy, being around the smoke of others (just not in my car or home, thanks). I remember being closed up in the car while my parents smoked with the windows up-- especially bad on rainy days. They weren't trying to be mean or cruel, they just thought nothing of it. We kids, growing up in the early 60's, would never have even thought of asking them not to smoke. It was just part of who they were (my mother died at 43 of lung cancer. My father, long divorced from my mom, quit 20 years ago, cold turkey). I doubt there are any serious health risks associated with it, but I CAN tell you that after being around kids whose parents smoke heavily, these kids really stink of tobacco. Their parents won't ever know, and the kids know no better. I don't think there should be a law against this, but parents should be a little more caring.
My main gripe is the butts out the window. Why is this form of littering apparently acceptable? Smokers, for the most part, don't seem to want to use the ashtrays in their cars because they don't like the smell. Why should the rest of us have to put up with it? I also find it curious that most smokers like to drive with their window down, with their cigarette near the open window, even when no one else is in the car. Why is this? Are they bothered by the smoke in some way? I see it when the temperature is in the 20's and rain is coming down. If I were paying what people have to pay for a pack of smokes, seems like you'd want to keep all that aromatic smoke as close to you as you can, not waste it by letting it go out the window.
Most of us of my age lived with smokers with no apparent consequences, so I don't think laws should be enacted. Maybe just a little common sense enacted would do the trick.
Close. It's not the butt, itself, though; it's the total motard who's such a complete and total social Philistine that they can't bring themselves to actually USE THEIR OWN ASHTRAY! Millions of cars and trucks on the roas and they ALL have an ashtray, but "people" -- and I use the term loosely, here -- STILL stuff their cigarette butts out the window, most of them still lit.
If the penalty for that was INSTANT DEATH, the carnage would blow your mind.