AIBU to think that the next step will be to ban smoking around children in people's homes?

[Carter1]

OK, first off, I don't smoke and, yes, I do think it is selfish to smoke around children in enclosed spaces OR around other adults who hate it for that matter. So just to get that out of the way. But...

The reasoning behind this ban is that it protects children from adult cigarette smoke in enclosed spaces even if the enclosed space such as a car is privately owned. This is important as all bans previously have concerned public buildings NOT owned by the smoker.

Now I may be missing something here but what's the difference between an enclosed space- i.e. a room in a privately-owned house- and a car when it comes to smoking around children?

I see none. So if it's wrong in cars then logically it must be extended to homes too, right?

If right, then how will this be enforced? Will the police have right to enter homes uninvited? So they can just enter uninvited to somebody's home because they suspect somebody is smoking around a child? If they have to give warning then the law is useless as it is impossible to prove who has smoked where.

AIBU?

"Smoke goes straight out of the window (if the car is moving)..."

Sorry - that is bollocks, blahblahblah. My parents used to smoke in the car - and I can promise you that plenty of the smoke stayed in the car. After years and years and years of car journeys where the smell of cigarette smoke left me feeling nauseous and headache-y, I asked mum to stop smoking in the car (dad smoked a pipe, but it was mum's cigarettes that really made me feel ill), my mum refused to stop, and tried to use the excuse that the window was always open (and that it was dad's pipe not her fags) but I didn't believe it then and don't believe it now.

And Carter - I am sorry but it is a bit daft to say that a car 'may' be smaller than a room. I have never seen a room as small as the internal cabin of a car - you can't even stand upright in a car!

In an ideal world no-one would smoke around children, but I don't think you can enforce this with legislation. I do make mu smoke in the garden when she visits now, though!

One thought - if I were a driver/adult car passenger who couldn't manage a journey without my nicotine fix, I would use an electronic cigarette.

smoke goes straight out of the window if the car is movi g
Absolutely not so.
When you smoke in a car the whole vehicle is filled with a suffocating, carcinogenic, toxic, vile acrid cloud that any persons present have no choice but to breathe in.
It does NOT go stright out the window. That is utter utter bullshit.

My comments were a bit tongue in cheek, of course they could never just ban it tomorrow but I think this ban on under 18s, cigarettes behind grey plastic shutters in supermarkets, not smoking in public places, no smoking in cars around children etc makes no one stop smoking either really. Although it is great at meaning non smokers shouldn't have to breathe the smoke in.

I am very anti smoking now having grown up with two chain smokers who would put cigarettes before food. I remember getting sent to collect the child benefit told to get 40 fags but told we didn't have the money for apples or cheese. Think that's made me very resentful.

Smoking in cars should be banned full stop,I can't see how they are not considered to be a hazard like mobiles.
Smoking anywhere near children should be illegal. As has been mentioned,many laws are difficult to enforce but that's not justification for legalisation .
It's utterly selfish and shows no regard for a child's long term health to smoke near them . The packed lunch police have a melt down at a homemade cake; but its ok to smoke near those same kids!

I'm not sure the measures taken were ever to incentivise smokers to give up anyway. I know that is the message we are fed, alongside prevention of non smokers being made to breathe in the toxic fumes, but tbh, most smokers, whilst grumbling about the changes and the ever increasing price of cigarettes continues to smoke just as much as they ever did.

I remember when 20 cigarettes were less than £2, and if I had a pound for every time I have heard smokers state that when smoking goes over £3, then £4, then £5 they will stop, refuse to buy them.

Well, I'm quite certain 20 cigarettes cost more than £7 now, and most of those same smokers continue.

Smokers have gone from paying less than £2 for 20 and being able to smoke almost anywhere they like, to paying more than £7 a pack, and the places they can smoke are decreasing hugely, yet they still continue to indulge.

I'm not sure any prohibitive measure would be particularly successful in forcing smokers to quit completely, so if you are hoping that prohibitive measures will turn smokers into non smokers, then you do not understand smoking in the same ways I do.

Smokers need to be self motivated to quit, not forced to do so.

We can, and imo, should ban smoking in enclosed areas where children, vulnerable people and non smokers have to be, but this will not make a huge number of smokers quit smoking. It will just mean they will smoke in another place.