Scrubbing up: More of your comments

Here are more of your comments on whether parents should be banned from smoking in the car when travelling with their children.

Absolutely! I had to grow up with both Parents being heavy smokers. This situation was exacerbated when ever car journeys were needed. There is nothing worse than being in a small space full of smoke when you are not allowed to open the window because the noise of the open window is so great when travelling on a carriage way or a motorway. my sister and I used to try and lie as low in the car as possible to avoid the smoke, often squeezing into the foot-wells behind the front seats to get away from the smell and the choking fumes. I'm convinced my parents smoking is an attributable factor to why I have asthma today.
Lee Harris, Weymouth, Dorset

I quit smoking with help from my GP about three and a half years ago. Lighting up during every car journey was obligatory; I was a heavy smoker and it was a deeply ingrained habit - almost Pavlovian. I shudder to think of all of the second-hand smoke which other people have had to breathe thanks to me, but even when I was smoking thirty to forty a day, I would NEVER have lit-up around children - certainly not in an enclosed space like a car! It's hard to conceive of why anybody could object to this idea for any reason other than extreme selfishness. Risking cancer in your kids is child abuse and should be grounds to have them taken into care, frankly. In fact - don't just stop at cars, make it houses with kids in too.
Mike H, Cardiff, UK.

I'm a non-smoker but frankly, I think the restrictions on smoking have already gone too far. I'm not a regular pub visitor either but when I do visit, the pubs are often empty and this obviously reduces their appeal. The one question I have with this latest idea is: How will it be enforced? Police seem to struggle to deal with those who use mobiles or speed excessively when driving, so it seems unlikely that they'll be able to effectively apply a 'no smoking with children present' law.
Dan Butroid, Hull, England

Good idea, both my wife and I smoke but never around our children, we go outside to smoke when we are at home. I do have the occasional smoke in my car if I'm stuck in traffic on my own but would never even dream of smoking with the kids in it - it just wouldn't be fair on them after all it is my choice to smoke not theirs. I find it shocking that people do smoke in the car with their children in it. It should be banned.
Rich, Stoke on Trent

I'm a smoking cessation advisor, so, perhaps predictably I agree with Professor Stephenson. However, it is from the viewpoint of a member of the public, albeit a non smoking one, that to me it is obvious that it just aint nice to be forced to endure an atmosphere thick with tobacco smoke. I think that there is a genuine ignorance at how irritating and pungent tobacco smoke is to non smokers.
Jim Moorhouse, Brownhills, Staffordshire

Then what about houses with children inside them? Much as I dislike it, I think you need to leave what parents inflict on their own children up to them to regulate. Any further controls should focus on public places where it's being inflicted on other people and other people's children first. Just because it's outside doesn't make it safe. Try walking past a row of offices, or past a row of pubs.
Andrew Riley, Reading, UK

I drive and ride a motorbike and am amazed at the amount of distractions most drivers have already in the car with them! Sat nav, mobile phone, kids and fags. To sit behind a car in front of me trying to light up while driving watching them look down to find lighter. It's much the same as those who choose to take a mug of coffee in the car with them. While not trying to tell people what they can and cant do in the car, personally it would reduce the amount of distractions from the drivers a bit!
Matthew Mckenny, Aylesbury

I work for a national company who have banned smoking in all vehicles. The vans are still full of ash, butts & stink of smoke but the company say they have no real way of policing the law. How does the learned doctor think that his proposal will be implemented when traffic police have been replaced with cameras?
Shane, Rushden

Well, I agree in one respect that sitting in my car with my 8 year old in the back, and having a ciggy out of the window probably doesn't do her health any good, but then nor does sitting in the car with the cooler fans sucking in all of the vehicle carbon and lead fumes that are around me in traffic jams! Should i get her a gas mask?
Caroline Harding, Wycombe

I smoke in my car when I have my son in it. I always have my window wide open, if its raining then I wait till it's stopped. We are slipping more into a nanny state whereby control and decision making is taken away and dictated to us.
Stuart Armstrong, Manchester

I would just like to say I have 2 wonderful children aged 13 and 17. I have always smoked in the car with my children in there with the window open. And my cigarette right near the window and then blow the smoke straight out. I don't see how all these people can keep telling us parents, adults, what we can and can't do. They never had this 20 years or so ago, but the way we are living now, there is always going to be someone telling us people what way we should be living OUR lives.

I just think its degrading as humans to be told everything we do is wrong, the kids of today know when they grow up it is going to be a lot worse for them.
Paula, Kent England

I raised this issue with a Minister for Health BEFORE the last restrictions on smoking were introduced by the Government. The reply clearly indicated that the Government thought banning smoking in cars containing those under 16 years of age was 'a step too far'. This was a poor thought then, as it is now. As a responsible society our first concern must always be for the welfare of children in all circumstances - to expose them to the possibility of a slow death from cancer, or to other serious disease really is irresponsible. Let us do something for our children now, not next year!
Derek Bird, Grafton Regis, Northants

While I was growing up I was exposed to smoking at home and in the car from my Father who smoked and I hated it. The awful stale air and the way I always smelt because of it. My Father died ten years ago of Lung Cancer due to smoking. I have two young children and from the moment I got pregnant and now will not let my children in the same room or car as a smoker. My husband always smokes outside with no objection and when visiting my husband's family (although they smoke around the other children in the family) they take their cigarettes outside while we're there because they know my feelings on the matter. I'm not being selfish, my children's health and well being will always come first. I hope their generation will be banned from buying tobacco of any form by the time they reach teen age.
Anne Davies, Rhondda Cynon Taf

Our dad used to smoke his cigar and pipe in the car, plus grandmother chain-smoked cigarettes. The car stank and we children in the back hated it. Children's rights and their health should always come first and those who moan about this being an example of the nanny state are missing the point, probably deliberately. Smoking in a car with children in it is child abuse.
C Beauchamp, Cheltenham, England

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version