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Smoking in cars with children to be banned

  Thursday, 30 January 2014

Smoking in cars with children present could soon become illegal in a bid to save lives.

Peers will soon be voting on the issue, with a ban already in place in America, Australia, Canada and some areas of Europe.

Shadow health secretary, Andy Burnham, said: “When it comes to improving the health of children, we are duty bound to consider any measure that might make a difference.

“Adults are free to make their own choices but that often does not apply to children and that’s why society has an obligation to protect them from preventable harm.

“Evidence from other countries shows that stopping smoking in the confined space of a car carrying children can prevent damage to their health and has strong public support.”

Pro-smoking groups, however, disagree, insisting that most adult smokers do not smoke when they are in a car with children, seeing the proposal as a ‘stealth’ ban, which will eventually lead to smoking being banned in people’s homes:

“I think this legislation is very heavy-handed, totally unnecessary and according to surveys, 84 per cent of adults wouldn’t dream of lighting a cigarette in a car, in a small enclosed space with a child present,” said Simon Clark, director of Forest.

“So adults already know how to behave, they don’t need the state interfering in their lives like this. If there are still some people who smoke in a car with children, then let’s educate them, but let’s not legislate.

“It’s almost going to be impossible to enforce anyway and the danger is that the police will have to ban smoking in all cars.

“We could have a situation where a lone driver, in his own car, will be committing an offence by lighting a cigarette and what’s the next logical step after that? Are we going to ban smoking in the home as well if children are present?”

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A YouGov poll shows that 78 per cent of adults in the UK agree that banning smoking in cars with children younger than 18 would be beneficial, with 44 per cent saying smoking should be banned in cars full stop.

Professor Robert West, from UCL, explains the dangers of second-hand tobacco smoke:

“We know that the smoke is toxic, we know that the smoke has carcinogens in it. If you imagine someone lighting up a cigarette in a club let’s say, you would know about it within seconds the other side of the room; in a car it is a much more confined space.

“If you can smell smoke you are being exposed to carcinogens, so you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that even if you are trying to smoke out the window the child in the back is going to be exposed to carcinogens.”

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