2007-04-22

Smoking in the Presence of Children is Child Abuse

Smoking in the Presence of Children is Child Abuse

Smoking around children is immoral and selfish to the extreem. Cigaret smoke causes cancer. CANCER! What part of that don't people understand?

Slapping your kid on the face is considered child abuse in many jurisdictions. Yet blowing ciragaret smoke is legal. How is that logical?

There isn't a jurisdiction in the world, thankfully, that allows you to have sex in front of children. Yet you can smoke; something that significantly increases their chances of suffering from respatory desease including lung cancer. LUNG CANCER !

Thankfully, if you are a heavy smoker, you probably wont live long enough to witness your children dying of your bad habit. But you could. There are no garantees. There are heavy smokers who are lucky enough to live to 90. But chances are, if you smoke, you will suffer from one of the numerous side effects (including impotance). You could live long enough to witness your children get sick and die because of your bad habit. You could witness the long and painfull death of your children. You will have murdered your own kid(s).

Too bad impotance doesn't affect ALL smokers. Because smokers shouldn't be allowed to have children.

Bangor, Maine, bans smoking in vehicles in which children are present. Makes sence to me. What do you think. Should smoking be illegal in the presence of children?

Related articles:

- Maine City Bans Smoking in Cars Carrying Children - New York Times-
(...) allows the police to stop cars if an adult is smoking while a child under 18 is a passenger. The smoker can be fined $50.

- Council supports smoking ban in cars- [ Traduire cette page ]

BANGOR - In 10 days, Bangor will become the first city in Maine, perhaps in the nation, to ban adults from smoking in any motor vehicle when children are ...

FOXNews.com - Bangor Makes It Illegal to Smoke in Cars - Health ...- [ Traduire cette page ]

Bangor Makes It Illegal to Smoke in Cars, Bangor, Maine, makes it illegal to smoke in cars with children present.

Laws prohibit smoking around children - USATODAY.com- [ Traduire cette page ]

Arkansas and Louisiana passed laws this year forbidding anyone from smoking in cars carrying young children. Courts are ordering smoke-free environments in ...


-BBC NEWS Health Tobacco smoke dulls child brains- [ Traduire cette page ]

Children exposed to passive smoking are likely to do worse at school than their peers, research suggests.

TOBACCO FACTS - Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living- [ Traduire cette page ]

In Louisiana, one out of every 2 children are exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes. From: CDC. State-specific prevalence of cigarette smoking among ...

-Kids and Smoking - [ Traduire cette page ] Everything for People Concerned About Smoking and Protecting the Rights of Nonsmokers.
www.ash.org/kids.html -

Second Hand Smoke & Kids - [ Traduire cette page ]

Second hand smoke is a major cause of children's illness -- yet 85% of adults who smoke and who live with a child do not ensure that the child is not ...
www.smoke-free.ca/Second-Hand-Smoke/health_kids.htm

Ontario Premier calls banning smoking in cars with kids a slippery slope
Wed Feb 7, 3:23 PM
By Chinta Puxley

From: Stateline

States go after smoking in vehicles with kids
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Thirteen states ban smoking in most public places and workplaces, including bars and restaurants, to protect people from puffs of others' cigarettes. But now there's a move afoot to fence off the private space inside a motor vehicle if children are present.

Arkansas pioneered the policy in April 2006 after state Rep. Bob Mathis (D) introduced a bill to shield children strapped in car seats from secondhand smoke. Critics didn't believe his proposal would go anywhere, but the Legislature passed it overwhelmingly in less than two days. And then-Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), a reformed health enthusiast, signed it.

Louisiana in August became the second state to ban smoking in vehicles carrying a child in a car seat. The city of Bangor, Maine, in January went even further by banning smoking in vehicles carrying anyone under 18. The law allows police officers to make a traffic stop if they observe a violation.

Moves to ban smoking in vehicles mark a potential new phase in the nation's crackdown against smokers as the case against secondhand smoke builds. Last year, U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona said there is no safe level of secondhand smoke. Harvard University researchers found in October that secondhand smoke in vehicles is hazardous to children even with the window slightly rolled down.

While Maine is not considering turning Bangor's ordinance into a statewide ban, lawmakers in four other New England states — Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont — picked up on the idea. Rhode Island state Sen. V. Susan Sosnowski (D) credited Bangor as the inspiration for her bill. In Connecticut, state Rep. Henry Genga (D) got the idea through an e-mail from a 10-year-old constituent and modeled his plan on the Maine city's approach.

At least 14 legislatures have introduced bills to ban smoking in vehicles in the last six months.

The trend began in 1998 when California became the first state to outlaw smoking in workplaces. Delaware followed suit in 2002, and 11 more states have since mandated broad bans against smoking in public places and workplaces, according to an American Lung Association report released in January. At least three other states have passed similar bans that have yet to take full effect, and many have smoking restrictions of some kind.

Legislators are pushing for their bills to protect underage passengers without much help: Anti-smoking groups aren't rushing to support them. Spokesmen from the American Lung Association, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights said some bills' penalties would be too harsh. Education, not punishment, should be the focus of any campaign against secondhand smoke, they said.

"Yes, the environment is more conducive to this legislation, but it's being presented in a way that makes people angry," said Joel Spivak, a spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "This isn't really about punishing people or putting them in jail. What it's about is protecting the health of children."

Bills pending in Montana, Arizona and California are the most restrictive. They would apply to smoking in vehicles carrying children up to 17 years old. In other states, the bans would apply only if the children were in car seats. In most of those states, that includes passengers younger than 6 years old who weigh less than 60 pounds.

If the bills were to become law, first-time violators could only be warned in Kansas, while in New Jersey and New York they could get slapped with a $500 fine. On the third offense in the same year in New York, drivers could be fined up to $1,500 or jailed for 10 days.

Smokers and privacy-rights activists nationwide dubbed the legislation an invasion of personal property that's based on a lack of scientific proof. Gary Nolan, Ohio director of pro-smoking advocacy group The Smokers' Club Inc., said that there are "more carcinogens in a burnt steak than in secondhand smoke" and that "secondhand smoke has never hurt anyone."

"This will give law enforcement cause to pull anyone over who's smoking," Nolan said. "It's big government, and they've gone too far."

Pennsylvania state Rep. Peter Daley (D) said he was the first in the nation to propose a ban on smoking in vehicles carrying children — in 1988, after he had a cancer removed from his throat that he blamed on whiffs from his mother's cigarettes. Then, he said, he was "all but burned at the stake," and newspapers called him "off-the-wall bizarre." The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania ardently opposed his legislation in 1988, and it went nowhere.

Daley is trying again this year with a bill that would outlaw smoking in vehicles carrying children who are strapped in a car seat.

The ACLU hasn't yet taken a stand against the newest bill but most likely will fight it again, according to Larry Frankel, legislative director at the Philadelphia office.

"When are we going to stop and draw the line?" Frankel said. "At some level, the people have to be responsible for what they do. We shouldn't use the law to enforce what we think is better behavior."

From blogs:

California jumps on ban-wagon re smoking in cars

26 Mar 2007 by Roger Sinasohn
And now, California wants to make it illegal to smoke in a car when children are present. The nerve! The thing is, these are not the same as taking a child to church or buying a little girl a toy truck. ...
Blogging Baby - http://www.bloggingbaby.com

Come ON, Bangor! Yes.....I am a smoker. And yeah, yeah, yeah.....I know all the downsides to smoking. Hell, I'm an RN, so maybe I know more than the average bear. But I also know I've had thousands of patients who still encountered lung cancer and respiratory diseases without ever ONCE putting a cigarette to their lips. So with that said......I will also acknowledge that smoking isn't "good" for us. We know that. However, I also know that smoking is LEGAL. It's also a CHOICE.

A Smoking Ban Too Far . The other common theme in the comments tread was how reprehensible it is for parents to subject their kids to cigarette smoke. I totally agree there too. I had respiratory problems through most of my childhood (until I was 13 or so) and my father was a heavy smoker, in the home and in the car. Was there a connection? Dunno, maybe. His smoking certainly didn't help.

So we are somewhat agreed that banning smoking in cars with children present is not a good idea while we are also agreed that smoking in cars with children present is also not a good idea. Hmmm. So what should be done, if anything, to resolve this conundrum?

Just butt out!

5 Mar 2007 by Jay Tea
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: smoking is dumb. It is stupid. It is foul, it is self-destructive, and it is disgusting. I have no sympathy for anyone who smokes; the evidence of how vile it is has been around for a long, long time, and today's smokers have no one to blame but themselves for their choices -- and the consequences they might suffer thereof

Others on the web:

Cornell Science News : Smoking as child abuse- [ Traduire cette page ]

James Garbarino, Cornell University's top child abuse expert, advocates viewing parental smoking as child abuse.

Parents' Smoking is Child Abuse, Group Says- [ Traduire cette page ]

The Canadian Lung Association said exposing children to secondhand smoke is a form of parental child abuse, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported Jan. 21. ...

Offensive, Anti- smoking T-Shirts and Gifts : CafePress.com : Shop ...- [ Traduire cette page ]
Smoking is Child Abuse Mini Button 10 packMini Button (10 pack) $12.99 ... Smoking is Child Abuse Men's Sleeveless TeeMen's Sleeveless Tee $17.99 ...
From the EPA: Health Effects of Exposure to Secondhand Smoke
http://www.epa.gov/smokefree/healtheffects.html

What is Secondhand Smoke?

Secondhand smoke is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe, or cigar, and the smoke exhaled by smokers. Secondhand smoke is also called environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and exposure to secondhand smoke is sometimes called involuntary or passive smoking. Secondhand smoke contains more that 4,000 substances, more than 40 of which are known to cause cancer in humans or animals.

EPA has concluded that exposure to secondhand smoke can cause lung cancer in adults who do not smoke. EPA estimates that exposure to secondhand smoke causes approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths per year in nonsmokers.

Exposure to secondhand smoke has also been shown in a number of studies to increase the risk of heart disease.

Exposure to secondhand smoke can cause asthma in children who have not previously exhibited symptoms.

Exposure to secondhand smoke increases the risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Infants and children younger than 6 who are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke are at increased risk of lower respiratory track infections, such as pneumonia and bronchitis.

Children who regularly breathe secondhand smoke are at increased risk for middle ear infections.

11% of children aged 6 years and under are exposed to ETS in their homes on a regular basis (4 or more days per week) compared to 20% in the 1998 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS).

Parents are responsible for 90% of children’s exposure to ETS.

Exposure to ETS is higher and asthma prevalence is more likely in households with low income and low education levels.

Children with asthma have as much exposure to ETS as children without asthma.

No smoking in cars -- what next?

27 Mar 2007
I don't smoke and, since both of my parents died of smoking-related illnesses, I feel pretty strongly that smoking is bad for human health. (...) People should be smart enough to figure out for themselves not to smoke in a car carrying children, but the state doesn't need to get involved.

ALTAVISTAGOOGLE: Smoking Should be Illegal


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