smoking in cars ban?

[ivykaty44]

Will it actually work? I can't see that many people smoke around children anyway and those that do will not stop due to legislation anyway, then if people haven't been policed about mobile phones it will be even harder with smoking.

I am not a smoker and don't think people should allow smoking around children but can't see this having any effect

I really hope it can work. Smoking in cars is horrible, and in cars around children is unforgivable.

As a smoker I'd be happy to see the ban! Yesterday a man was going along with no hands to light his cig! He had no kids in the car but he still wasn't paying attention to the road

Always found it ridiculous that mobile phones are banned, but you can drive along with something that's on fire and it's fine.

Is it a U-Kipper initiative? lol

Smoking, kippers...get it?

"Don't, please yourself missus, titter ye not".

Signed
Francis.

Or drive along with the cigarette hand dangling out of the window while driving/changing gear with the other? Very safe.

The other day i saw a mum get in her car and light up - windows shut and 4 kids inside. It should definitely be banned - as even if it only slightly increases the chances of people like that stopping then it will be worth it.

If smokers can manage to watch a film/go on a plane journey without a cigarette they can surely do short trips/the school run without. On a longer trip have a cigarette break.

Excellent idea. My father smoked in the car when I was a child and I hated it as there was no escape from the smoke. I know that some people will probably disregard the law if it is brought into force but anything that hammers home that it is just not acceptable to smoke around children would be a good thing.

I was given a warning (rightly so) for driving whilst eating an apple. I did remark to the policeman that dropping an apple in my lap would unlikely cause me much of an issue, where as a lit cigarette...........

Bring it on.

Having dropped a cig down my cleavage while driving once (a long time ago and before kids of course) I would agree with this ban.

However I don't think they'll be able to enforce it. It's not like you never see people driving and on the phone is it?

I think the police should monitor around the roads near schools at drop off/pick up. they would make a mint.

I think it's appalling to smoke in a car with children, or anybody else in it.

However I think it's unenforceable. People like those you mention Sparkling will just wait till they're round the corner to spark up.

Anyone else spotting a police car for instance, will surely just fling the fag out the window.

I really hate the fag butt out of the window thing. Is that not littering?

Do you know what? It's a smelly habit, but I am not sure for most children it has that big an impact on their health, tbh. I would like to see some really hard statistics on the actual risk, rather than the wishy washy public health prattle we are getting at the moment. Hope David Spiegelhalter says something on the topic. He is cool.

I hope it does. I hate seeing people smoking in cars - all of those trapped toxins. So many people still do it with children in cars too. And what if they dropped the cig?

A few years ago a nurse who had just got off a 12 hour shift was fined for eating an apple whilst driving home - I can't see how they can uphold that and yet people smoking is fine.

Well yes, but I imagine hard to prove at 50mph unfortunately.

I speak though as someone that handed a discarded fag packet back to a man stopped at lights the other day.

I assumed he'd be upset later when he found it had blown out his car window

Obviously I got a relieved and cheery fuck off thank you for my trouble.

diesel cars and busses give off more harmful fumes than cigarettes so its a pointless excercise in terms of health and as a law its pretty much uneforceable.

im glad to see labour politicians have nothing more to worry about...

Is this only with children in the car? If not then it's too intrusive. They'll have to ban eating, too, if I'm following the logic correctly.

I don't know about that peggy but at least the diesel fumes are outside. We are talking children being in a very confined space with concentrated fumes passive smoking.

BoffinMum hard statistics on the effect of smoking on children's health.

This is from the National Center for Health Statistics (USA)

Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) has harmful effects on children's respiratory health and has been linked to higher risk of middle ear infections, bronchitis and pneumonia, coughing and wheezing, worse lung function, and asthma development (1). Children with asthma whose parents smoke have more severe symptoms and more frequent exacerbations

This is research conducted by Imperial College London

The introduction of smoke-free legislation in England was immediately followed by a fall in the number of children admitted to hospital with asthma symptoms, a new study has found.

NHS statistics analysed by researchers at Imperial College London show a 12.3 per cent fall in admissions for childhood asthma in the first year after the law on smoking in enclosed public places and workplaces came into effect in July 2007. The researchers found that asthma admissions continued to fall in subsequent years, suggesting that the benefits of the legislation were sustained over time.

The effect was equivalent to 6,802 fewer hospital admissions in the first three years of the legislation, according to the analysis published today in the journal Pediatrics.

The first paragraph does not contain any stats or reference to cars, and the second does not relate to cars at all.

sparkiling i dont believe passive smoking causes any real harm, yes it may be smelly but thats as bad as it gets. if the window is open i dont have a problem with people smoking in their own cars with children in it.

You would have to control for things like whether the window was open, total time spend in car, frequency of trips, etc.