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.

@MajorCarolDanvers

The kind of people who still smoke indoors in front of children wouldn't be motivated by making it illegal.

Sadly this is true.

I still thinking should be illegal, maybe put more social pressure on them not to do it.

Absolutely agree. It would be difficult to police but that doesn’t mean we should continue letting it happen. I detest sending my son for contact with his dad in a home where there is constant chain smoking and minimal ventilation. I hate that my son goes to school one day a week stinking of stale smoke. I fear for his health but there’s nothing I can do about it whilst it’s legal.

With a car it's easy to define because the space is very confined. In a home things can be very different, a single mother smoking in her studio flat with her baby next to her is a different situation to a wealthy lady smoking in a different wing or even in the same room but meters away from a child.

I don't think making it illegal would change much in practical terms either. Parents who actually care about their children already choose not to smoke indoors around them. It's only the ones who don't care about secondhand smoke that would be affected by the law, and since it would be almost unenforceable, I doubt they'd care much about that either.

With a car it's easy to define because the space is very confined. In a home things can be very different...

My parents smoked as much in the car as at home and don't anyone dare open the windows!!

Things have changed so much around smoking. It used to be so accepted. I remember coming back from clubs with my hair and clothes stinking..I didn't much like it and it was nice when it was banned. Safer too from a fire risk perspective