Twenty of Britain’s most senior doctors have called for a ban on smoking in cars in a bid to protect children against the effects of inhaling smoke.
Writing in a letter to The Times newspaper, the doctors urged the Government to bring in laws prohibiting all smoking in vehicles and in public places visited by young people such as parks and playgrounds.
A report today by the Royal College of Physicians concluded that 300,000 GP appointments and 9500 hospital admissions a year are caused by the effects of smoke on children, costing the NHS about £23 million.
Paediatric health problems attributable to second-hand smoke include 20,000 cases of lower respiratory tract infection, 120,000 cases of middle-ear disease and 200 cases of bacterial meningitis, it estimates.
About 40 sudden infant deaths are also caused by passive smoking annually.
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Re: Call for smoking ban in cars
Re: Call for smoking ban in cars
It is every man's right to smoke should he wish to do so. You have no right to stop him.
Should a man be harming a child by smoking in the same car I would say you have the right to stop him as the child has no choice but to breathe the harmful fumes.
The answer : A ban on people smoking in cars with children under the age of 13. Stop trying to control everyone's lives.
Re: Call for smoking ban in cars
I can think of nothing good to say about smoking but I dislike the idea of laws for everything even more so.
There are ways to be stupid and ignorant about just about any subject we care to mention often with significant consequences for other people.
I regularly see people regularly stopped in the middle of a road with their hazards on and nattering away on their phone seemingly oblivious to the law and the obvious risks they create. The newish laws on this subject to me seem perfectly reasonable but they have obviously done little to deter some. Laws are not kryptonite for stupidity and I wouldn't appreciate everywhere to be swathing with bobbies either.
Smoking doesn't have to have a significant effect on the ability to drive so long as people are sensible about it. I'd rather folk didn't smoke at all but i'd much prefer they were left to make their own minds up rather than some largely unnecessary and unenforceable new law.
In many ways it's hard to think of a more perfect place for smokers, just so long as I'm not with them or have to use their car afterwards.
Maybe things would be more agreeable for all concerned if ashtrays tended to be to the right of the steering wheel instead of next to the gearstick.