UK Doctors Support Smoking Ban For Cars

BY EMILY SPAIN

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British doctors want to put the brakes on smoking in cars.
A move that would go beyond any other smoking regulation in the world.

Currently, the UK has banned smoking in all enclosed public places.
The British Medical Association is backing the car ban to protect children from secondhand smoke.

According to the BBC, the BMA argues research shows the level of toxins in a car after someone smokes a cigarette are up to 23 times higher than what you find in a smoky bar.

Simon Clark, the director of the smokers' lobby group Forest, tells BBC he doesn't buy those stats.

"I think the evidence that we've been provided with is very flimsy and I think we are hearing a lot of hyperbole... Let's educate the remaining 8 percent or so of smokers who continue to do that, let's educate them, let's not coerce them with bans that then have to be enforced."

A writer for the Daily Mail notes it shouldn't take the government turning on the red light for adults to put out their cigs in the car.

"Children are being put in harm's way because adults are not exercising control over their unhealthy smoking habit. The State shouldn't have to make them stop in the presence of children, it should happen out of a sense of responsibility and consideration."

Other organizations are backing the the ban as well - including the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health along with the British Lung Foundation. The foundation told The Guardian it supports the ban because children:

"...'are literally trapped in the car and have no choice but to breathe in smoke'".

But a blogger for The Spectator is worried about the long-term affects of the ban.. and writes about fearing what snuffing out smoking in cars could mean for society down the road.

"...there is, in a civilised society, a difference between disapproving of an activity and prosecuting people who engage in it. There is so much control freakery around smoking, it's easy to dismiss this as just another attempt to push the boundaries. But this attempt to ban private pleasures is not just a slippery slope. It's proof we're well on the way to the bottom."

According to the Herald Sun it is already illegal to smoke in cars with children in Australia, Canada and parts of the US.

Transcript by Newsy.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• smoking ban in cars
• smoking ban
• tobacco
• uk smoking ban
• cigarettes
• secondhand smoke
• british medical association
• health news

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