Smoking Legislation

Bill Bans Smok­ing in Cars With Kids

I have mixed feel­ings about this leg­is­la­tion. I remem­ber all too well what it’s like to be stuck in a car with a smok­er for many hours, and I’m fair­ly cer­tain that some of my res­pi­ra­to­ry prob­lems are relat­ed to smoke expo­sure dur­ing my childhood.

But if we’re going to say, “You can’t smoke around minors” then why not say, “PERIOD” instead of “in the car” as this leg­is­la­tion would? Because the lit­tle guys can’t decide to go live some­where else or walk out of their par­ents’ abode, can they? 

In fact, why stop at age 4? Sec­ond­hand smoke is dan­ger­ous, peri­od. Peo­ple who don’t choose to smoke should­n’t have to accept the health risk caused by smok­ers. It’s ille­gal to sell tobac­co prod­ucts to any­one under 17 in Geor­gia, so why not make it ille­gal to smoke in the pres­ence of any­one under 17 too?