THIS year the House of Lords will be debating a ban on smoking in the same car as children.
The announcement at the end of last year followed research by the British Lung Foundation that said more than 430,000 children between 11 and 15-years-old are exposed to second-hand smoke in the family car, at least once a week. They’re aren’t any figures for younger children, but sadly I imagine it’s the same sort of numbers, if not worse.
How on earth is something like that even possible?
Over the weekend we watched a woman pulling out of a car park with three young children in the car, puffing on a cigarette, with the window open about two inches. To all intent and purposes, this woman looked ‘normal’, seemed well turned out, was driving a nice car, and had you seen her in the street, you would never consider she’s someone who would harm her children.
But clearly appearances can be deceptive.
I’ve never smoked, but I have many friends and family members who have either smoked in the past, or still do. These days I’ve stood down from my teenage soapbox and just accept that as much as I personally don’t understand it, smoking is a choice, and people make that choice with all the knowledge and awareness about its harmful effects.
But anyone who smokes around their children is poisoning their little lungs.
These people wouldn’t slip arsenic, ammonia, butane or acetone into the kids’ shepherd’s pie, so why on earth let them breath in such harmful chemicals?
I have no idea how they will police this law if it comes in, but I’m all in favour, even if it only serves to shame parents into not doing it.
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