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Smoking Illegal With Children In Car[W:501]

Do you agree with ban on smoking inside cars with children?

  • Total voters
    84
A $50 fine for child endangerment is ridiculous. This is one of those feel good laws that the nanny state is famous for. Next we could have $50 fines for having obese children, $50 fines for allowing children to play in the street and perhaps $50 fines for playing loud music (over 85db) that can damage their little ears.

I can understand the concept of trying to prevent morons from harming their children and exposing them to unnecessary dangers but why the (small?) fine and not more serious criminal charges? If the real issue is wanton child endangerment then make the sentence fit the crime; impound the vehicle ($250?), take the children to CPS ($500 fine for each) and arrest the offending adult(s) ($1,000 fine).

If the crime is serious then treat it as such. The fine for drinking alcohol in public is $100 in the Free State - is child endangerment really only half as serious of an offense?
 
ChrisL said:
I don't know if smoking in the car with the windows rolled up is as bad for a baby as breathing the air in a polluted city, and common sense would tend to tell me that it isn't as bad, when you can see that the baby is inhaling pretty much all smoke while inside the fish bowled car. That's disgusting!
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Enough with the fish bowled car already.

Smokers are going to crack their windows as soon as their eyes start to burn. I used to smoke (it's been 8 years). I would always have my window down an inch, no matter what the temperature was outside.

If the vehicle is moving, the venturi effect draws the smoke right out of the window.
 
joko104 said:
Keep the window cracked. Good enough.
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What effect to you think pepper spray in the car, tear gas, crack, etc. would have on passengers of a car but with a cracked window? Are you implying that as long as a window is cracked everybody gets fresh air to breathe or rather from your perspective cigarette smoke is really no big deal so offer a token compromise to appear like the smoker is being reasonably considerate? Image is everything? Symbolism or substance?
 
We surely can agree that we enjoy our personal freedom, but lets not forget that with this freedom also comes responsibility. Sadly, too many want one without the other. Perhaps its ignorance or laziness, stubbornness perhaps, who knows.
So what are we left with? We either demonstrate enough responsibility, not just for our actions, but also realizing how our actions impact others, or some have to do it for us.
If smokers, i.e., don't have enough brains to know how damaging their filthy habit is, perhaps its high time they suffer the consequences.
 
CanadaJohn said:
I hope you're right, but statistics I'd seen recently showed use is rising among young people - I hope that's wrong.
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Well it is highest amongst 20-24 year olds so I assume that means those younger smoke less and more adults are quitting. I know that among my age group which is the younger one, smoking now carries a very negative around it and you will find any university level kid smoking only college kids. It seems the lower their intelligence the more likely they are to smoke.
 
I don't see the point. It accomplishes nothing other than to make those who passed it feel good. These parents are still going to be smoking around their kids and the kids are going to continue to breathe it in. You cannot legislate stupidity out of our country. It is insane how more and more everyday the government takes more and more control from us. And it is sad how accepting people are to it.
 
Kal'Stang said:
The cigarette smell could be from several sources. Could be from smoking while kids are not in the car, could be from ashtray, could be from smoking passengers when kids are not there, could be from the residue on your clothes which transfer to the seats and many many other reasons. I've yet to see smoke in the back of a car when my kids are there. If any does get back there it is so little as to be irrelevent. They'll get worse toxins from the car itself and the cars that are also driving on the road. Indeed you have more chance of getting into an accident than giving a child lung cancer with a window open. If you want to wonder about putting your child at risk then think on that. Unless you live in a bubble house your kids are put at risk all the time. Much of it needless.
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You are in denial. I remember quite clearly being in the back of the car with my father smoking while driving and having that smoke come back toward me, not to mention the ashes. It absolutely is a problem. And as a child, you do not really have a say in making it stop because most of the time you have to be in the car with your parent and your parent(s) are likely not to care about your protests. My mother even defended my father's smoking in the car around us.
 
Alyssa said:
I agree that it's deplorable to smoke around children, but do we really need Big Gubbermint stepping in to keep children safe and healthy on THIS level? Isn't that what parents are for? Personally, I don't want to live in a country where bureaucrats wipe people's noses and change their diapers. People can't be protected from themselves, and unfortunately no matter how unfair it is, children are subjected to social darwinism. If they are born with morons as parents, their lives will probably suck. But at what point does society continue to intervene? And where does it end?
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Yes we do need government to step in because there are obviously still people who smoke in their cars with their children in them. If it wasn't a problem, then there would be no reason for even thinking about such a law in the first place.
 
roguenuke said:
Yes we do need government to step in because there are obviously still people who smoke in their cars with their children in them. If it wasn't a problem, then there would be no reason for even thinking about such a law in the first place.
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You are aware that a law banning something does not actually stop it from happening, right?
 
I believe some people really do not understand the point of fines or laws that have a fine for a penalty. It really isn't to make a lot of money on that particular law off of everyone who would break it. It is to deter people from and give them incentive (in a negative way) to not do that action. This will have the desired effect because it will cause quite a number of those who do smoke in their cars with kids to think about the law (particularly if it is put out enough to the public that it is there) before they light up in the car with their kids. It is the same with things like child safety seat laws. They probably don't have too many cops out there checking to ensure that the laws are followed to the letter, checking age or weight of children to ensure that they are in the proper seat. However, the laws do cause many parents to follow the law.

Some people actually are mindful of their kids and their kids' health, but others can be quite selfish when it comes to these things. As I've said, my father had no issue with smoking in the car with us in there, he would still do it with my children if I allowed him to drive them anywhere, but my husband has never smoked in the car with the children, always ensuring that he smokes right before we leave anywhere with the children. He obviously doesn't like doing this but he also knows that it is best for our kids, laws or no laws.
 
Kreton said:
I don't see the point. It accomplishes nothing other than to make those who passed it feel good. These parents are still going to be smoking around their kids and the kids are going to continue to breathe it in. You cannot legislate stupidity out of our country. It is insane how more and more everyday the government takes more and more control from us. And it is sad how accepting people are to it.
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Please detail exactly what "control" you've "lost" regarding this ban?
 
scatt said:
Does it really?
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Yes. Just as car seat laws greatly reduced the amount of children/babies riding unrestrained in the car. I know for a fact that those like my father would not smoke in his car and drive if he was worried about breaking a law and possibly being fined for it. He might be upset about it, but he would still obey the law. And this is how a lot of people are.
 
roguenuke said:
Yes. Just as car seat laws greatly reduced the amount of children/babies riding unrestrained in the car. I know for a fact that those like my father would not smoke in his car and drive if he was worried about breaking a law and possibly being fined for it. He might be upset about it, but he would still obey the law. And this is how a lot of people are.
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How do you know it does?
 
Carjosse said:
Well it is highest amongst 20-24 year olds so I assume that means those younger smoke less and more adults are quitting. I know that among my age group which is the younger one, smoking now carries a very negative around it and you will find any university level kid smoking only college kids. It seems the lower their intelligence the more likely they are to smoke.
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I have noticed, perhaps anecdotally, that young Asians are far more prone to be smokers than other young people and perhaps since we here in Canada have had such a large influx of new immigrants from Asia in the past decade or so, what I'm seeing is more cultural than age related.
 
roguenuke said:
You are in denial. I remember quite clearly being in the back of the car with my father smoking while driving and having that smoke come back toward me, not to mention the ashes. It absolutely is a problem. And as a child, you do not really have a say in making it stop because most of the time you have to be in the car with your parent and your parent(s) are likely not to care about your protests. My mother even defended my father's smoking in the car around us.
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I decided to respond to your post because a number of people have said children don't have a way of making it stop and I think that's mainly true but I wanted to relay what happened to my sister-in-law and her two sons a few decades back. Both the boys, twins, from a young age (5-6) would kick up a fuss and tell my sister-in-law to stop smoking, to quit, it's dirty, it's bad for her, etc. They were relentless and my brother, who doesn't smoke, didn't intervene because he'd tried to get her to stop for a long time without success. Well, as it turns out, one day she just said to hell with it and quit cold turkey and never smoked again - the boys were delighted, my brother was delighted, her family was delighted, and she ended up being better off for it. She was a bean-pole while she smoked and gained a good bit of weight after quitting, but her breathing greatly improved and she wasn't popping Hall's every two seconds and coughing, and generally her health vastly improved. She's quite thankful her two boys were such little bastards and never let up on her.
 
CanadaJohn said:
I decided to respond to your post because a number of people have said children don't have a way of making it stop and I think that's mainly true but I wanted to relay what happened to my sister-in-law and her two sons a few decades back. Both the boys, twins, from a young age (5-6) would kick up a fuss and tell my sister-in-law to stop smoking, to quit, it's dirty, it's bad for her, etc. They were relentless and my brother, who doesn't smoke, didn't intervene because he'd tried to get her to stop for a long time without success. Well, as it turns out, one day she just said to hell with it and quit cold turkey and never smoked again - the boys were delighted, my brother was delighted, her family was delighted, and she ended up being better off for it. She was a bean-pole while she smoked and gained a good bit of weight after quitting, but her breathing greatly improved and she wasn't popping Hall's every two seconds and coughing, and generally her health vastly improved. She's quite thankful her two boys were such little bastards and never let up on her.
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That's good, but everyone isn't the same and there are not only some parents who would simply ignore the complaining (I would hassle my father a lot although I also got flack from my mother for it) and he still smokes with major health issues and even a pace maker (he better hope he doesn't need a heart transplant), but there are other parents who will punish a child for such comments on their smoking. And there are other children who will be too afraid of losing their parents' love (unfounded or not) to speak up at all.
 
roguenuke said:
That's good, but everyone isn't the same and there are not only some parents who would simply ignore the complaining (I would hassle my father a lot although I also got flack from my mother for it) and he still smokes with major health issues and even a pace maker (he better hope he doesn't need a heart transplant), but there are other parents who will punish a child for such comments on their smoking. And there are other children who will be too afraid of losing their parents' love (unfounded or not) to speak up at all.
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I agree - it's not the norm by a longshot - I just thought it would be nice to point out that sometimes parents actually do listen to their children and children can have a life-altering affect on their parents.
 
CanadaJohn said:
I agree - it's not the norm by a longshot - I just thought it would be nice to point out that sometimes parents actually do listen to their children and children can have a life-altering affect on their parents.
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Oh, I know sometimes it happens. And it is more likely with more support from others. Unfortunately, there are adults who could be a bigger influence who would rather not "risk" their relationship with the smoking adult to do so (this is really one of the only issues that my mother and I are in contention over, and ever have strongly disagreed on).
 
d0gbreath said:
Enough with the fish bowled car already.

Smokers are going to crack their windows as soon as their eyes start to burn. I used to smoke (it's been 8 years). I would always have my window down an inch, no matter what the temperature was outside.

If the vehicle is moving, the venturi effect draws the smoke right out of the window.
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That is what smokers say to make themselves feel better about exposing their children to poisonous carcinogens. "Oh, I crack the window, it's all good." Stupidity.
 
d0gbreath said:
If the vehicle is moving, the venturi effect draws the smoke right out of the window.
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If I rolled my eyes as much as that statement required they'd pop out of my sockets.
 
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