To think that smoking indoors around children should be illegal?

[Crimesean]

It's been very clear for decades from multiple peer-reviewed studies that secondhand smoke harms children. It's bad enough watching people smoke around their children outdoors, but it's absolutely disgusting and (in my opinion) abusive to smoke indoors around children.

Not only will those children be far, far more likely to suffer from respiratory illnesses during childhood or later life, they are more likely to develop cancer and heart problems too. Children of smokers are also much more likely to take up smoking themselves.

Why has the government not stepped in to do something about this? OK, social workers/police have a lot to do and wouldn't be able to follow up on just this one issue on its own, but even just making it illegal would help over time to reduce it, and for those parents who don't care about their child's health, it might convince them to stop smoking indoors if it could get them fined.

I'm a smoker and I agree with this. However like others have said, I dont see how this could be enforced.

Yes but outdoor smokers tend to stand near the windows of others houses also.
Ours used to get flooded with smoke!

Love the idea that making things illegal would be the "last push" people need to give up.
Cos it totally worked with drugs

It's funny how different the replies to this are compared to the banning smacking post I saw the other day.

I guess no one enjoys smacking as a hobby 🤷

I'd say they are equally difficult to enforce, but that's no reason not to ban something.

I am a smoker but can honestly say I have never smoked indoors ever…the smell is disgusting 🤢 Cannot imagine how it must be for children being surrounded by cigarette smoke..so yes I agree in principle but it couldn’t be enforced!

I am an ex smoker, but it doesn't mean I think it's so terrible it should be a safeguarding concern.

Dont be so ridiculous, do you read the papers or watch the news, some people are not keeping their children safe from dangerous dogs, not safe from step parents or mothers boyfriends or partners, not providing decent food, taking drugs in front of their children, and ………you are worried about cigarettes

@isadoradancing123

I’d argue second hand smoke is as damaging as many of those things you’ve listed

I don't agree that smoking causes 'more harm' than smacking. A lot of the damage from assaulting ones child is emotional. I'd rather my dad had smoked 60 a day than given me a huge therapy bill to unpck, and I work wirh a lot of adults suffering the affects of violence in childhood. I also don't think the two things are compatible.
I see what you mean about the bigger picture but what can be done? Teacher thinks little jonny smells of smoke. Police question parents. Parents deny it. Aunty Mildred was round on Sunday with her cigars.

Then what?

Agree but there only one wag to enforce it.

Make tobacco illegal. Simple.

@ChrisS36

Agree but there only one wag to enforce it.

Make tobacco illegal. Simple.

Simple yes but wouldn't stop people doing it. Cannabis is illegal. 'Spice' is illegal. Ecstacy is illegal. Do people just bow down and think 'oh it's illegal now so we don't do it? No. And especially not with tobacco as unlike cannabis it is physically addictive.

I grew up in a smoke-filled house where both parents chain smoked and I went on to smoke myself. Then both parents became seriously ill and I had left home by that time and years later managed to kick the habit. I was vilified by DM for being anti smoking but so relieved I escaped such an unhealthy environment. The good old 70s eh!!

@BooseysMom

I grew up in a smoke-filled house where both parents chain smoked and I went on to smoke myself. Then both parents became seriously ill and I had left home by that time and years later managed to kick the habit. I was vilified by DM for being anti smoking but so relieved I escaped such an unhealthy environment. The good old 70s eh!!

So did I and it was horrendous.

My mum and dad smoked constantly when I was a kid and i always remember hating the smell of smoke on my clothes.

I will never forget when we went on holiday to Blackpool and we were in a family room and they were smoking in bed and I was covering my nose with the blanket, I must of only been about 10 years old but I remember it well and I’m 49 now.

And have Never Smoked .

People have smoked around children since tobacco was introduced into this country. We haven't had generations of sickly asthmatic kids, nor the level of hysteria shown here. My parents smoked, no problem with resp diseases amongst kids.
Appreciate it does affect some, but it isn't the sole cause of resp diseases - throw many other scial factors to be considered. And of course, many kids wbo haven't been around smoking adults get resp diseases

@Snugglepumpkin

I think it should be illegal to drink alcohol or take any drugs around kids but it seems the most virulent anti smokers can't bear to be deprived of their alcohol.

I personally find most perfume & all those chemical air fresheners so repulsive I wish they was illegal.
They make my eyes water & sets me off coughing but that doesn't mean it's fair for everyone else to give up perfume because I don't like it.

I think they should bring in a birth date ban for smoking so e.g. everyone born after Jan 1st 2004 will never legally be allowed to buy cigarettes in the UK.
That's what they would do if they really wanted smoking gone.

People like you OP are NEVER happy though, because if all the smokers go into their gardens, then you'll be back whining about how you can't enjoy your garden because of the smoke blowing over the fence.

The more stupid petty little things like smoking you put on Social Services to deal with, the more genuinely in urgent need of help children will be left to be abused because instead of dealing with the family where someone is visiting that childs bed every night, they'll all be too busy dealing with time wasting calls about someone who thought they saw a lit cigarette in the window of a house where a child lives or investigating whether some kid visited their granny who smokes & now his coat smells a bit is at risk of being around tobacco smoke.
Don't they have enough to do?

I'm not a 'virulent anti-smoker' - I just know that smoking around children causes harm to them.

I also think being too drunk/high to look after a child is a big deal - and FYI, I'm teetotal.

You obviously have a bee in your bonnet, so I'd guess you smoke. Sorry about that, must be awful being addicted.

@Wheniruletheworld

People have smoked around children since tobacco was introduced into this country. We haven't had generations of sickly asthmatic kids, nor the level of hysteria shown here. My parents smoked, no problem with resp diseases amongst kids. Appreciate it does affect some, but it isn't the sole cause of resp diseases - throw many other scial factors to be considered. And of course, many kids wbo haven't been around smoking adults get resp diseases

Great! Let's abandon all medical evidence and allow folk to continue to harm children, because some of them are OK

I hope you realise how batshit that sounds.

And FYI, there have indeed been generation upon generation of kids dying of respiratory illnesses. Maybe pick up a history book occasionally rather than getting 'evidence' from Facebook, hmm?

I think it's actually pretty rare now, people have stopped smoking inside at home without needing a law, my neighbour smokes outside (annoying if we are on our balcony but that's a different thread) my sil smokes on her back step- this is the norm now and wasn't 25 years ago. If society changes without laws it is better, even the most militant smokers don't around their kids

Like someone else said people that smoke in front of children won’t care that it’s illegal. I remember my dad smoking in front of me growing up it was how it was then ( kinda why I’m anti smoking now) He wouldn’t now he’d go outside . Most smokers are aware it’s harmful and will go outside for anyone but like I said if they don’t care they aren’t going to stop if it’s illegal in homes .

If the aim is to reduce the level of carcinogenic chemicals, then are you also going to include phthalates in synthetic fragrances and vinyl flooring, flame retardants in furniture, diesel exhaust etc ?

What about living in areas with naturally high levels of Radon (particularly high in Cornwall and Devon)?

Imagine it though, if SS got a call from every curtain twitching nosy neighbour about smoking inside. Real cases would get overlooked even more than they are now. There is just not enough resources for this sort of stuff.

Even if it wasn’t enforced, it would still take away a lot of time from kids that actually need help.

@Ifailed

If the aim is to reduce the level of carcinogenic chemicals, then are you also going to include phthalates in synthetic fragrances and vinyl flooring, flame retardants in furniture, diesel exhaust etc ?

What about living in areas with naturally high levels of Radon (particularly high in Cornwall and Devon)?

Absolutely - because of course all good policies address every single tangentially related issue...

@crimesean I said that some were affected, and I did not suggest that all medical advice is abandoned. What I said was 2nd hand tobacco smoke is not the SOLE cause of resp illness - many other factors, particuarly social come into play, and that not all kids with resp issues are children of smokers. There may be a causal link, it isn't the sole cause

So no, I am not 'batshit'

And well done on your attempt at patronising me with your little 'hmm' at the end of your advice. How very grown up

Yes I cannot believe workers are protected yet children aren’t even in their own home. It may be hard to police yes but then so is other forms of neglect and abuse and we don’t shrug and say “we can’t police if they are being verbally abused as there’s no evidence”. It is another detail to be considered in a bigger picture and if you cannot be bothered to protect your children from poisonous chemicals in their home that you know full well have health implications then that should be neglect.

"but even just making it illegal can have an effect over time, the nudge. "

It won't. Anyone working with sex workers, addicts and vulnerable people know that criminalising them further only does damage. Likewise people who have MH issues including anxiety. Impose fines and the children are punished. Have it as an offence and the ability to get work gets less. Prison? That does really fuck children up. As someone whose worked with vulnerable families it's best to keep them out of the justice system, if only for the sake of the children.
Laws are made after research and evidence. So from what angle would you go with? The cost to public health? I'd find that fucked up when families are using food banks. We really don't give a shit about health, or rather our government don't.
This would need a massive cash injection that is better spent elsewhere if you care about children's health.

Also re the cost to public health, we really need to sort the traffic issues out first. Unbelievably previous pedestrianised areas have now been put back for car use in many areas to suit the bar/hospitality sector that towns are moving towards. Even though they are in main shopping areas, were families have to walk. We are still designing our lives around car use.