Laws prohibit smoking around children (Even Private Spaces)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-11-27-smoking-bans_x.htm

Anti-tobacco forces are opening a new front in the war against smoking by banning it in private places such as homes and cars when children are present.

Starting Jan. 1, Texas will restrict smoking in foster parents' homes at all times and in cars when children are present, says Darrell Azar of the Department of Family and Protective Services.

Vermont, Washington and other states and counties already prohibit foster parents from smoking around children in their homes and cars.

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

"We are very rapidly moving to protect children from secondhand smoke," says John Banzhaf, executive director of Action on Smoking and Health. "Even from their own parents and grandparents."

I hate seeing adults smoke around their kids - but is this going too far? Gee, I was an abused child with both parents who smoked in the house, in the car, at the restaurant (way before no smoking sections).

[trumad]

1. I agree--- but a parent has to have shit for brains to smoke around their kids..

[proud2BlibKansan]

37. I smoked around mine and I don't have shit for brains

They are both grown now and are just fine. They also didn't get sick a lot as kids, as the anti-smoking crowd claims about kids of smokers.

My dad smoked around his 4 kids and it didn't damage us either.

I know smoking is harmful and if I had to do it again, I probably would NOT smoke around my kids. I generally don't comment on these smoking topics as I do agree it is bad for us to smoke and I do believe it does bother some people. My dad finally quit after my mother complained for years that smoke bothered her.

But to say that smoking parents have shit for brains is just completely over the top.

[Kagemusha]

2. The foster children are technically wards of the state but...

Passing laws regarding people's OWN children is very, very iffy, legally speaking... even though I should add that only callous fools smoke in a car with kids in it nowadays. Such people lose my respect very quickly...

[Redstone]

3. Oh, kiss my ass. Anyone ever hear of opening a window?

How about in a convertible with the roof down? Is THAT going to kill a kid?

Note: I don't smoke in my own house, though I could if I wanted to. It's my decision.

Redstone

[Mythsaje]

6. We don't smoke in our house

and we don't even have kids.

[mongo]

18. Ah Ha!

You must have a meth lab in your home then!

From our local paper today:

Hawks is urging residents of Perry County to be on the lookout for people dumping in cornfields and unoccupied land and to those who may be manufacturing the meth in the villages or towns in Perry County.

"If you see a lot of late night activity, visitors to a home at all hours of the day or night, fans in the windows running when it's cold outside, people smoking outside instead of inside, call us," Hawks said. "Sometimes you can smell the ether or the chemicals used. If you smell something that just isn't right, then call us. We need all the help from the public we can get."

http://www.zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061128/NEWS01/611280304

:sarcasm:

[Redstone]

26. Oh, now THAT's a riot! What the HELL is next?

Redstone

[Mythsaje]

29. Believe it or not

part of the reason is because we don't want to inflict our dogs with the second-hand smoke...LOL

[BlackVelvet04]

13. Should we form a line to make it easy for them?

When parents get "little" Johnny off his overweight ass and send him outside to play and cut out all the crap food they feed little Johnny, I'll consider worrying about their little Johnny's health.

[Mythsaje]

4. When they brought up a law to ban smoking in cars with kids

here in Washington State a few years ago...the cops told them "don't bother. We won't enforce it."

A law is meaningless if it can't or won't be enforced.

And god only knows the cops have nothing better to do.

[irislake]

10. The point is

once there is a law against it more people will think twice about doing it. And if one partner smokes and the other has a problem persuading the asshole not to smoke in the house he might be less inclined to do so. It delegitimizes and makes it socially unacceptable. Women aren't supposed to drink or smoke while pregnant and the disapproval attached puts the brakes on bad behaviour. Yup it's bad behaviour. My spouse and I smoked in the house and the car and our children smoked. Two still do. I am sorry there wasn't an atmosphere that discouraged it. My spouse was a doctor and at medical parties in the 60s we had to open the windoes because our eyes were stinging from the smoke. We all smoked then. Crazy! As for you smokers ---MOST PEOPLE HAVE QUIT. Think about it. How hard can it be? Save yourselves. Don't support the tobacco companies.

[mongo]

16. And now that YOU have quit

you find it quite easy to butt into everyone else's life to "delegitimize" and make them "socially unacceptable".

Mind your own business!

[irislake]

32. Actually

that was my honest opinion and I very seldom express it. My son-in-law smokes in the house and I am shocked that his chain smoking actually makes it uncomfortable for non-smokers. The whole damn house fills with smoke.And it's a big house. My daughter, who quit a few years ago, tries to get him to smoke outside for the sake of their five-year-old. I keep mum because it's their business. But it would be easier for her if she had more ammo to use to get him to smoke outside. I am surprised he gets beligerant about it when his daughter is involved.I mentioned my past heavy smoking only because I wish there was pressure then for us to quit. I don't crusade -- I just regret I ever smoked and wish my daughter could prevail on her partner to consider his daughter. In Canada it costs a fortune to smoke as well. Until very recently I refused to believe that second-hand smoke was dangerous and was one of the few non-smokers who let people smoke in my car. I still let smokers smoke in my house. But I live alone and don't have many friends that smoke any more.I don't think I am particularly intolerant and unsympathetic. I am sure smokers feel attacked from all directions.

[REP]

5. Ban Children - For The Children

[MrSlayer]

7. Yay! More smoking laws.

Why not just make it illegal already and create 50 million more criminals? Think of the revenue that could be raised from seizing property and fines. We could invade more countries and spread more freedom even as we continue to take it away here. Wooo!!

[Redstone]

8. Hey, we live in Connecticut. Tobacco grows here, as do other herbs.

Redstone

[MrSlayer]

9. I've had some of the herbs from Vermont.

As good as California's best.

[bobbolink]

11. If people can't figure it out for themselves, then, yes, children must be protected.

Does it infringe on peoples' "rights" that lead paint is banned from indoor use????

Again, I say--children must be protected.

Period.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

22. Using that logic

We should simply lock our kids up and throw away the key. Lets ban automobiles because they cause pollution that can be linked to cancer, and kids breathe that noxious air. Lets kill all children's sports leagues because sports cause injuries. In fact, there shouldn't be running of any kind allowed at all because of the dangerous risks of falling. While we're at it, kids MUST stop taking baths - after all, I hear about young kids hurting themselves in the bathtub all the time, and some {GASP} even drown. Speaking of drowning, swimming pools are dangerous too - lets put all owners of swimming pools in jail because their kids MIGHT, someday, POSSIBLY drown.

Good christ, if I want to smoke a cigarette in the garage and my son comes out to watch me work on whatever project I'm working on, I should be able to do that without worrying about the fucking cops giving me a ticket or taking me to jail.

FWIW, I completely agree with banning smoking in public areas where children might be present. But what I do in my car or around my house is my fucking business.

[bobbolink]

35. Absolutely, because kids, as everyone knows, are easily replaceable.

Too fucking hell with what a child needs, your wants come first.

A whole lot of evolving going on....

[EvolveOrConvolve]

39. Nice non-sequitur

I didn't advocate smoking in the house with a child. I know and understand the risks of second-hand smoke. However, there are far more dangerous activities than being outside around a smoker a couple of times a year. You sound almost hysterical in your hatred of smokers. Let me guess - you're an ex-smoker?

What's next, putting parents in jail for feeding their kids McDonalds and making them fat? How about we put poor parents in jail for living in high-crime areas and putting their children at risk? Un-fucking-believable...

[bloom]

12. "prohibit foster parents from smoking around children in their homes and cars"

Sounds like a good idea. People who are raising other people's children for a living should be expected to follow reasonable guidelines. And I think those are reasonable.

People who want to do whatever the fuck they want, whenever the fuck they want (regardless of the consequences to others) - shouldn't be parents - foster or otherwise.

[Warren DeMontague]

14. I support restrictions on smoking in indoor, public spaces. And as a kid, I was forced to breathe

a LOT of second hand smoke. My dad died of lung cancer.

But although I think smoking around your kids is absolutely atrocious parenting, I strongly disagree with these law. Yes, I think it goes too far. We don't need more government telling people what they can do in their own homes.

Edit: I missed the part about the "foster" part. Actually, that strikes me as slightly more reasonable. If you're being paid by the government to raise someone else's kids, then the government has a right to give you some direction on how to do the job.

[Matariki]

15. i hate laws like this

on the other hand, i remember BEGGING to be allowed to open a window in the car when my parents smoked. After about 5 minutes of me coughing and crying and begging they would finally allow me to crack the window about an inch. I'd gratefully stick my nose out at the top of the window. I wasn't being dramatic - which is clearly what my parents thought (this was back in the 60s btw, I was and still am extremely sensitive to smoke. Never-the-less, I voted AGAINST the smoking in bars ban here in washington state. I wish my parents would have had more courtesy and common sense, but i still hate laws like these.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

17. smoke makes me ill

My parents smoked when I was a kid, in an un=airconditioned house, with nothing to filter the dirt, dust, smoke, pollution, whatever. This was the early sixties. They quit when the first report came out that smoking caused cancer from the Ochsner Clinic. Dad quit when I was about five. Mom quit when I was about nine.

I didn't like it. I was always afraid they would drop ashes on me.

I have NEVER EVER smoked a cigarette, not even once. However, I have scar tissue in my lung tubules which is visible on an X-ray. It looks like white specks of dandruff along the inside edges of the tubules.

Also, if I am around anyone who smokes indoors, or go into a bar, I have to immediately take off and wash my clothes and jump in the shower and wash myself and my hair becasue I can't stand the smell.

If I am at a person's house who smokes, I will come down with a sinus infection within two days,requiring a doctor visit, exactly, because of the irritation it causes. I have had to cut off friendships with smokers and pet owners.

When I was a kid I had a runny nose all the time and the other kids yelled at me in school for blowing it all the time, but I guess nobody else noticed and they didn't have decongestants and antihistamines then.

As an adult, when my immune system was extremely depressed due to stress, I came down with bacterial pneumonia caused by non-pathogenic bacteria, and IV antibiotics didn't work. They let me out of the hospital and I went home sick and coughing and weak. None of the gunk would break up.

I was in and out of the hospital for almost five years, and the trips to the ER from sinus infections continued for several years afterwards. Countless times. My doctor washed my lungs out, in the hospital, four times in five years, thus saving my life. I would have drowned in my own pus (sorry for the grossness) and died. I was in my early 30s at the time.

The respiratory techs just couldn't understand why I was so sick and didn't smoke.

Even now, I have many allergies and take medication for it, and have allergic asthma.
I'm sure the folks smoking didn't help any. And at the grandparents' house, Grandpa smoked stinkin' stogies.

I will sit in traffic, and if the driver in front of me is smoking, I can smell it when it comes out of their car. Gag.

I don't know if my parents' smoking caused all this, but it surely didn't help any.

[BlackVelvet04]

24. The first antihistamine was released in 1945. n/t

[mongo]

19. If you're a foster parent

then you have a reasonable expectation that the government is going to set some standards and rules for your home.

But the ultimate goal of these nazi anti-smoking groups is to make smoking illegal in your own home.

I really hate laws like this. If second hand smoke is so bad, why aren't all of us dying off?

[Fridays Child]

20. If you smoke but you think you're protecting your kids from tobacco exposure...

...get one of these test kits and see how much cotinine (a by-product of nicotine) your little kids have in their systems. The results might surprise you.

[Texasgal]

21. More nanny

government? This is the last thing we need....

[devilgrrl]

23. Fine.

eom

[BeFree]

25. Good

Next law I want to see is air pollution cleaned up. Ya know, like stop this global warming thing. If they really cared about the kids it'd already be done, eh?

This is all just one more case of messing with the people and letting the big guys skate. They can do stuff to the little guy because he doesn't have lobbyists or global profits to scare the lawmakers away.

[mongo]

27. Exactly!

And meanwhile we are brainwashing people into thinking that any allergy/respiratory problem they have is related to some past exposure to cigarette smoke (forget about all the other nasty Shit they have been exposed to over the years), and teaching people to have a psychosomatic reaction to the slightest whiff of smoke.

But who cares about the formaldehyde, DDT (it was sprayed from trucks all summer long throughout my neighborhood, and the dozens of other chemicals we have been exposed to.

[Karenina]

31. Divide and conquer.

[NoBushSpokenHere]

28. I am sick of holier than thou smoking nazi's!

Just wait until they put your favorite vice on my ballot........paybacks are hell! If smoking were THAT bad SMOKERS WOULDN'T BE LIVING UNTIL THEY ARE NINETY! Face it, admit it, you just don't like the odor from the cigarettes!

And another thing while I am ranting:

Why is it that people who are raising foster kids cannot smoke around the kids BUT PEOPLE WHO CAN pop kids out like rabbits can smoke all they want around them! Talk about social disparity!

I am willing to bet that most of the holier than thou smoking nazi's have not done a damn thing about things that matter like eliminating DRUGS FROM OUR SCHOOLS or GLOBAL WARMING or even getting on the damn tobacco companies for adding the freakin chemicals to our cigarettes! Why not start there, eh? Instead you want to dictate laws to us that prevent us from enjoying a habit that hasn't been proven to do near the health damage than your exhaust from your car of smoke from your barbecue has done! Ohio's smoking ban comes into effect sometime between December 7th, 2006 and June 7th, 2007 and you better not get near me then!

Oh and by the way, I am going to suggest we place a bill on the ballot for a new tax - A holier than thou tax! I know alot of smokers that will be voting for that one! I am also proposing a bill for outlawing barbeque's (charcoal contains pollutants - look it up) and propane is dangerous - kids can accidentally ignite your grills and burn themselves! People in glass houses should not throw stones!

Our forefathers would turn over in their graves if they knew what was going on in this country today regarding the eroding of our rights!

[BlackVelvet04]

30. Could we please enact a

WHINING TAX?

Now that kids are elbow padded, knee padded, helmeted, belted, and packed in Styrofoam the parents have to find something else. WHO TOLD THESE PEOPLE THEY COULD BE SAFE FROM EVERY KNOWN POSSIBLE DANGER IN THE WORLD?

Between the righties trying to protect us from terrorists and the lefties from smoke and fatty foods I feel protected TO DAMN DEATH.

Remember that movie with Sylvester Stallone Demolition Man? That's what this country is starting to feel like.

[Dulcinea]

41. Hear, hear!

To all the smoking nazis: Why not take up a cause that will do some real societal good, like global warming or helping the Gulf Coast, rather than shoving your dislike of smoking up everyone's rear ends??

There will always be people who smoke, drink too much, abuse drugs, or what have you, & that CANNOT be legislated! Get over it!

Prohibition really worked well the first time, didn't it?? :sarcasm:

[madmusic]

33. How the hell are they going to enforce that?

A police officer in every house?

[TahitiNut]

34. Neighborhood Watch

:eyes:

[kiahzero]

36. Presumably they'd notice the smoke when they check on the kids.

You know, since we're talking about foster parents here.

[madmusic]

38. As a start...

You mean.

[Quantess]

40. Why must everything be made enforceable by law?

How about informing people of the dangers and hazards that secondhand smoke causes to children? Do we really have to have more legislation, instead of educating people to make the right choice?