Washington State Representative Shay Schual-Berke compares it to drunk driving, saying you’re injuring your children for life if you smoke with them in your car. Several other states, including California and Alabama, already have banned smoking in cars with children, and 27 others are considering a similar ban.

Dale and I agree wholeheartedly with this proposed legislation. Children have no voice of their own so we feel it’s up to us to protect them. The unfortunate part of the law as it’s being proposed is that you could only be sited as a secondary offense, meaning that you could not be pulled over for this offense alone. Offenders would have to be pulled over for something else, and then if it was determined that they were smoking with children present, they would face a fine of about $100. We’d like it taken a step further to make it possible to pull people over for this offense alone and we’d like to see fines set at a higher level.

Why do I feel so strongly about this issue? Well for one thing Dale’s mother, a non-smoker, died of lung cancer after being subjected to secondhand smoke for most of her married life. Dale and I have long been opposed to smoking and tried many times to get his dad to quit, to no avail. As I was preparing this article I was dismayed to have my own grown daughter tell me that when she was young, her grandfather often smoked in the car with her present. Today we have seven grandchildren of our own and thankfully they are not being subjected to second hand smoke by any of their relatives, but there’s currently no law to stop a friend from polluting their lungs if they’re riding in someone else’s car and we think that is wrong.

Did you know that when kids are confined in a vehicle with a smoker it’s like they are smoking one cigarette for every four that the smoker smokes? Secondhand smoke contains more than 250 chemicals known to be toxic or cancer causing, including formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic, ammonia, and hydrogen cyanide. (1)

Secondhand smoke causes irritation of the lungs, leading to coughing, excessive phlegm and chest discomfort. It also causes irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat. Children who breathe secondhand smoke are more likely to suffer from pneumonia, bronchitis, and other lung diseases. They are also more likely to have ear infections and develop asthma. Children who have asthma and breath secondhand smoke have more asthma attacks. (2)

There are an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 cases every year of infections, such as bronchitis and pneumonia in infants and children under 18 months of age who breathe secondhand smoke. These result in between 7,500 and 15,000 hospitalizations! (3)

So What’s the Take Away?

If you’re a smoker, here is what you can do to protect yourself and your family from secondhand smoke.

• Do not smoke in your car or allow others to smoke if there are children present
• Don’t smoke in your home
• Ask other people not to smoke in your home, especially baby-sitters or others who may take care of your children.
• Choose children’s day car centers, schools, restaurants and other places you spend time in that are smoke free.
• If you must smoke, try to smoke only in an open area away from your family.
• Quit for yourself and your loved ones…. Call your local American Lung Association at 1-800-LUNG-USA (1-800-586-4872) to find out more about how to stop smoking for good.

If you’re a non-smoker, write your state legislators and tell them why you believe there should be laws against smoking in public places and in cars when there are children present.

For more info on the effects of secondhand smoke on both adults and children, please read: Secondhand smoke: Avoid dangers in the air you breathe

Footnotes

1. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: Children are Hurt by Secondhand Smoke. A Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006; Available at: http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/secondhandsmoke/factsheets/factsheet2.html

2. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: Children are Hurt by Secondhand Smoke. A Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006; Available at: http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/secondhandsmoke/factsheets/factsheet2.html

3. California Environmental Protection Agency. Health Effects of Exposure to ETS. September 1997.