UK Doctors Calling For Smoking In Cars Ban.

[spartan]

I'll have to disagree with the proposed smoking ban in a car. Obviously stupid for all the above reasons; INCLUDING the distraction while driving argument; rubbish. They gonna tell me I can't drink a glass of water in the car too?
I'll also agree with the fact that meerly smoking AROUND children (bad form in my opinion) is probably not as harmful as they are making it out to be. They being the media and these lunatic "doctors".
That being said, I think smoking around children(persons not legally allowed to purchase tobacco) in an enclosed space with little to no ventilation is pretty damn close to just sticking a cig in their mouth and lighting it up for them. 1- That's illegal 2- Be a friggin adult about it

 

[collindow]

It isn't even close, spartan. Because if you're smoking a cig, your lungs act as a very effective filter, preventing the most harmful bits of the cig from going into the air and being inhaled by the child.

Second, even if 10 smokers did this, the amount of SHS would be too low to matter. The poison is in the dose, and according to Oakridge Nat'l Labs, the worst environment they found was about 50 times too low to be a threat to anyone's health.

 

[withnail]

I think that the main argument against smoking in front of children is that it might encourage them to take it up themselves.
One of my teachers, when I was 11 until 13 smoked, a pipe during lessons and another chained smoked cigarettes. My parents both chain smoked in the car on long journeys. In my first office job I was provided with pens, paper and an ashtray on my first day. A cinema was half smoking, half non-smoking. You could smoke upstairs on a double decker bus. All trains had at least one smoking carriage. Restaurants provided a non-smoking section for those who wished to sit there. How times have changed.
I think the effects of second hand smoke have been overstated, but when arguing a point such the current proposed ban, it is best to close of any avenue that the other side may exploit before they get the chance!

 

[spartan]

Point well taken. And I'm glad to know that I CAN smoke around a child and it will not effect their health in the negative.
I'm still opposed to it because I don't think that it is okay to subject a child to something that is clearly an ADULT pleasure. Same reason I'm not gifting out Adult films in Trick or Treaters' bags. :rofl:
A crude form of sex-ed in my opinion but hey it gets the job done lol.

 

[cyndi]

I'm a stay at home mom so if I couldn't smoke around a child I would have to give up smoking. I believe that education, not abstinence, is preferable in all the things. Tobacco, drugs, alcohol, sex, firearms, the Internet, large animals, etc... If a child does not learn the truth while they are young and learn about responsible consumption then they are going to believe their idiot friends when the topic comes up. I recently had to have a talk with my 11 yo about masturbation because he believed that if he got an erection the proper thing to do was to punch himself on the dick until it went away. Kids will make up things in the absence of the truth. As a parent, it is MY job to give them the facts and answer any questions openly and honestly.
In the car, we employ the 4 and 60 method of AC when I'm smoking. They are not shy about saying "that tobacco smells like crap" if they don't like the smell and I will put down the pipe. Every drug education course they have at school is followed up with a conversation about how pipe tobacco is not the same as cigarette tobacco and about responsible and moderate use. We also talk about the biology of a growing body and why children are not allowed tobacco, alcohol, or caffeine until they are older.
IMO, the government needs to stay out of my decisions as a parent. I understand that lots of parents are not like us, so those school programs are often the only information kids are getting. (especially here in the South.) We should not be legislating something that harms the few people who are irresponsible. Next they'll be going after fireplaces and candles because of the idiots that don't teach their kids that fire is hot or don't maintain their chimneys.

 

[withnail]

"IMO, the government needs to stay out of my decisions as a parent."

Well said! I think it is especially true in the case of alcohol. When growing up I was allowed to have a shandy (beer and lemonade) when we went out on holiday and the occasional glass of wine with a celebratory meal(Birthdays and Christmas) at home. A couple of friends had parents who never let them go near alcohol and didn't discuss it with them. When we all became teenagers, it was generally those from a stricter background that ended up blind drunk and ill when they first got their hands on some booze.

 

[cyndi]

Withnail - around here, the problems are drugs and sex. Because the education is limited to "it's bad, don't do it" there are TONS of teenagers hooked on drugs and pregnant. One of my good friends in school who was brilliant lived in a very strict Christian home. She couldn't even come to my church because it was "sketchy" even though it was the same denomination. Well, teenage hormones what they are, she believed her long time boyfriend when he said "if I pull out, nothing bad will happen." she got pregnant the first time and ended up having to transfer to night school, missed her prom, and her boyfriend left her because "he would take her to Harvard with him, but not the baby." another of my friend's dad smashed my mom's Tiffany tape with a hammer because it was "too explicit" then beat her. That girl ended up with a STD at 12 years old and was pregnant by 16. There were also kids who had to be airlifted to the hospital because they OD'd on drugs and alcohol in school. One girl passed out in the halls and her bowels and bladder let loose after she took 30 Ambien.
My logical conclusion was that those kids' parents were doing it wrong.

 

[aussielass]

They'll probably end up compromising as they did here a few years ago i.e. zero smoking in cars with children under the age of 16yo and zero smoking at any outdoor vendue where kids are or can see anyone in the public smoking i.e. sports grounds, school grounds (even after school hours), swimming pools, probably public beaches are also off limits now as well city centres. We also have zero smoking in hotels, bars, restaurants, cafes, not even on the sidewalk = fines are astronomical. Oh, and zero smoking within any Hospital grounds - wtf, that's a hell of a walk with an intravenous drip stand to get out on the roadway goddamnit.

 

[philip]

Parliament raising my concerns that this is another example of the nanny state going mad. What will be next?

Believe it or not, I just heard on the radio a report on the effect of second hand TV on children.

 

[withnail]

Cyndi - It's shocking that youngsters living in the 21st century can be denied such basic information. Although the teen pregnancy rate here in the UK is nothing to be proud of. But that is more the result of the benefit system and here isn't the place for me to rant about that! I wonder though, how does the sight of a lady smoking a pipe go down in your community?
Philip -

"Believe it or not, I just heard on the radio a report on the effect of second hand TV on children."

Sadly, I am starting to believe anything!!!

 

[juni]

I disapprove of the ban. However, there is a local ban here too - limited to our car. My wife doesn't want me to smoke in the car so I won't (although if I am stuck in a bad traffic jam I will open the window and have a cig).

 

[withnail]

Juni -

"I disapprove of the ban. However, there is a local ban here too - limited to our car. My wife doesn't want me to smoke in the car so I won't (although if I am stuck in a bad traffic jam I will open the window and have a cig)."

Well there are some authorities that outrank the government! :wink:

 

[morlader]

Tslex I like living here,it's my country.