Doctors call for ban on smoking in cars
Wednesday 24th March 2010, 8:09AM GMT.
Doctors today called for a ban on smoking in all vehicles after a new report revealed passive smoking causes at least 22,000 new cases of asthma and wheezing in children every year.
The report from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) found more than 20,000 chest infections, 120,000 bouts of middle ear disease and 200 cases of meningitis in youngsters are also thought to be linked to the effects of second-hand smoke both inside and outside the home.
Furthermore, 40 babies die from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDs) every year caused by passive smoking – one in five of all SIDs deaths.
Professor John Britton, chairman of the RCP’s tobacco advisory group, said legislation to ban smoking in the home would be unenforceable so instead views of “what is acceptable” had to be changed to protect the two million children who live in homes which allow smoking.
But a total ban on smoking in cars and vans would be easier to police than the current situation which expects enforcement officers to differentiate between business and private vehicles, he said.
“We would recommend a ban on smoking in all vehicles,” he said.
Prof Britton said even drivers who never had child passengers should get out of their cars before lighting up for reasons of road safety.
Current smoke-free legislation is due for review this year and Prof Britton said it was an opportunity to “close remaining gaps”.
Richard Ashcroft, a professor of bioethics at Queen Mary, University of London, who contributed to the report, said the review also gave opportunities to clamp down on smoking in public places frequented by children.
Prof Britton said this could include banning parents from smoking around the school gates but added it would be difficult to legislate for situations in private gardens.
The report said passive smoking results in more than 300,000 GP consultations for children, some 9,500 hospital admissions and costs the NHS about £23.3 million each year.
Prof Britton said: “Many parents believe that smoking in only one room or when the children have gone to bed will somehow protect the children from exposure. It doesn’t.”
Funded by Cancer Research UK and carried out by the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies, partly based at Nottingham University, the research found that children whose parents both smoked were almost nine times as likely to be exposed to second-hand smoke as those in non-smoking families.
The RCP called for increases in the real price of tobacco, measures to tackle tobacco smuggling and illegal trading, and investment in media campaigns targeted at young people.
Cigarettes should also be taken off display in shops while packaging should be made generic and standardised, doctors said.
Other measures include cutting down exposure to images of people smoking in the media – with films and television programmes which show gratuitous smoking classified as adult viewing – and stiff penalties for those who sell cigarettes to under-age youngsters.
Janet Davies, executive director of nursing and service delivery at the Royal College of Nursing, said: “Today’s report should come as a stark warning to anyone who smokes around babies and children.
“The serious damage second-hand smoke causes to the long-term health and well-being of children is entirely avoidable and must be prevented.”
Betty McBride, director of policy and communications at the British Heart Foundation, said: “All parents want the best for their children, yet many are making their kids breathe a toxic fog of tobacco fumes which only damages their health.”
Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ lobby group Forest, said: “If you ban smoking in cars, which is a private space, it’s a small step to banning smoking in the home. Both measures are unacceptable and unenforceable.”
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “By increasing the level of awareness of the harmfulness of second-hand smoke, particularly to children, we will encourage people to voluntarily make their homes and private cars completely smoke-free.”
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The best reason to ban smoking in cars is that if you drop it down your front your eyes are not on the road for a long time…….if you can’t eat a banana and drive you shouldn’t smoke – a banana will not burn your private bits.
from an ex-smoker – who I have heard are the worst.
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I don’t have kids, it’s my car, I’m paying for it and I’ll damn well smoke in it if I want to – What are they gonna come into my home next to tell me how I should live my life? Keep your nose out!
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Why not just ban it completely?
And I am a smoker.
But this hypocrisy from the government of telling us how wrong this is while shamelessly profiteering from a ridiculously unfair tax regime is typical of our do as I say and not as I do government…
For example, does everyone know that the bar in the house of commons is not non smoking… apparently they work long hours and need to be able to have a puff and going outside might be a “security” concern… Come off it you two faced tin pot dictators!
Ban it, and let the non smokers realise how much extra tax they are going to have to pay to fill the black hole in the budget!
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Yet still they smoke in the houses of Parliament!
More dual standards for us ‘little people’ to have to adhere to while those in power follow their own sets of rules. Pretty soon we won’t be able to do anything without special written permission. This country is becoming a laughing stock for the rest of the world.
I agree with Suellan here, I am paying best part of £17,000 for my car, the only occupants are myself and my wife who also smokes so why should we not smoke in it if we choose to do so? Whatever happened to “Freedom of Choice”?
Brave New World is coming…
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I don’t smoke in my car but i think i may have to start now
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Why not strike off ALL Doctors and Nurses that smoke, they should know better.
They might learn to keep their mouths shut then.
Nanny State.
From a non smoker.
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I may be missing the point here, but it would seem that doctors have proven that smoking in a confinde area is bad for you. As doctors want to make people better,thats why they go into medicine, then they are recommending prevention rather than cure. Makes sense to me !
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All a waste of time people still use their mobiles while driving you see it every day. The smoking ban is another joke they as said still smoke in the house of commons,private members clubs,most pubs who now have lockins after 11pm out come the ash trays, works vehicles etc etc etc no point in making laws if they are ignored it is a waste of tax payers money spending time on it
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Its the governments attempt at getting some cars off the road. The same tactic worked when they wanted to close all the pubs..
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Smoking and driving saves lives!
We all know that you shouldn’t drive while tired, but I know many people that have smoked while driving to help keep them awake and alert.
Its shocking…. but true!
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We should put all the smokers in a big building, such as the Millennium Dome, and allow them to smoke themselves to death.
Enjoy lung cancer, mouth cancer, cardiovascular problems, impotence and premature death.
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Cars are private propperty NOT public transport.
if they ban smoking in cars,they’d have to ban smoking in your home too,
as both are private propperty.
Why not just label smoking as a class A drug?,
which it is seeings as its the #1 killer,
& takes more lives per year than anyother drug classed as A,B,C COMBINED.
also hold tobbacco companies accountable for drugdealing & the death toll.
oh wait,they wont do that because its a good tax revenue.
it baffles me how they can make such a big deal about cannabis in the media whenever someones caught with it.
how many deaths reported from cannabis,
now a class b from class c drug?, none..ever…fact.
tobacco deaths per year = 80,000 (uk only).
fyi i don’t smoke cannabis myself,only because of the price,not because it’s illegal.
but i am addicted to tobacco & have been for 20years with countless attepts to quit without any luck in doing so.
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Smoking causes disease as does drinking, taking illegal drugs and eating far too much.
If people didn’t do these thing but instead spent their time eating sensibly and exercising regularly the bill to the NHS and the taxpayer would be significantly less. They would also be much happier and richer.
Let’s make it really easy for everyone to understand
You can all do what ever you want unless you are affecting someone else in which case you will be fined £10K per incident.
When you realise that your activities have made you asthmatic, obese, insane, jaundiced etc you will not get any medical treatment unless you can pay 100% of the cost yourself
Few will be able to do this and so they will suffer and die – and all in the name of personal freedom.
Only fit none self abusing people will live for very long. As they will receive medical assistance from a no longer overburdened NHS they will be able to breed and so the human species will become much fitter.
Darwin was right but medical science and the “rights” of the individual got in the way of natural selection.
To quote a meerkat – Simples!!
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Pipe smokers like myself should still be allowed to smoke in cars. Its a civilised hobby and not at all unhealthy or dangerous, ask Sir Ranulph Fiennes!
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Since when did we become citizens of a ‘non’ free state? I’m fed up to the back teeth of ‘jobs worth’ telling us what we can and can’t do.
Go find something else more constructive to do like pay your own expenses and give some of high wages to those that have not – ooo better still, that money could fill in the duty tax gap that will be left by all smokers.
Give it a rest and get a life.
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Wow – it’s a bit bizarre that people are saying ignore this as they smoke in the bars at the House of Commons. What’s that got to do with it?? This is to do with doctors saying that smoking in cars causes increased risks to children. I’m not sure how banning smoking in Parliament is going to help children forced to breath in smoke in cars. That is one of the most bizarre responses I’ve seen on one of these comments! Still – these are always a good opportunity to show your political prejudices…
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Agree with St John but I would lock him in too :-)
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Im a smoker and I think what people do, is their business. If they put a ban on this, it’ll open up the floodgates for other bans. I dont get it.
Malone
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@10
What a hateful comment to make wishing death on people just because they smoke.
And besides if banning smoking in cars is for the benefit of children why not ban all parents from smoking permanent? What difference will banning it in the car make if mum and dad still smoke in the home? None whatsoever (unless they ban smoking completely and then all the non smokers can welcome a sharp rise in their taxes payable to fill the hole lost on tobacco taxes).
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Here in Canada it’s against the law to smoke in cars carrying minors and it’s policed as well as the law against not driving whilst on a cell phone – and that’s very well. Agree with the need for both laws – they protect those that may be subject to illness, injury or death caused by the actions of the cell phone user / smoker….
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@16
Suellan: I haven’t wished death on anyone. Typically, you have misinterpreted my message for your own agenda. Have you thought about becoming a New Liebour MP?
Anyway, I digress. If you wish to commit a long and drawn-out suicide, that’s up to you. However, I do not wish to breathe your formaldehyde, ammonia, benzene and carbon monoxide gasses so I’d prefer it if you did it well away from people who do not wish to suffer your ultimate fate.
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Suellans noxious gases appear to be nothing to do with smoking and more a bi-product of her words.
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Nah you’re all right Mr. Peasbody I’m voting Lib Dem this time – as for having my own agenda I wasn’t aware I had one so maybe you could enlighten me as to what that agenda is?
As for smoking well away from your and others like you isn’t that what the smoking ban has achieved? you get what you want and you still complain
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Agreed with H. St. John Peasbody,@11
The government will never ban smoking all together, yet they will keep secluding it further and futher. And rightly so, although smoking should be banned altogether!
Where else would they make their money?
The importance of this is that it could save lives, it’s not to annoy you smokers. Also think of the money you’ll save on your car, who wants to buy a car which smells like second hand smoke?
Captain P
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Just lately, i’ve seen a lot of cars smoking, mostly Toyota’s.
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So, what qualifications do these posters have who claim that smoking causes cancer etc,? I began the habit at 14 years of age and have continued ever since. Recently I had a chest infection and was sent to the hospital for x-rays and blood tests and guess what, no problems at all. Given that I am now 70 I would have thought that according to these “experts” I would have been riddled with cancer if, as they claim, smoking CAUSES cancer. Get it right, smoking MAY cause cancer, or not. Here in Greece the majority of the population smoke and there are countless people here well into their 70′s and 80′s. If one lights up in a pub in, say Birmingham, they would be castigated by the non-smokers there, who, a short time later would be strolling down the town centre breathing in lungfuls of carbon monoxide from the traffic, but they have no problem with that even though it is far more toxic than tobacco. Scaremongering and double standards rule.
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I remember when a friend of mine who was a tiny bit overwieght was told by an obese, wheezing doctor to watch his weight!
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#26
Not sure what planet you have been on for the last 50 years but smoking does cause cancer. Numerous epidemiological studies have shown that smoking is related to an increased risk of lung cancer. There is a clear dose response relationship. Without going into too much detail diseases are caused by a complex interaction of genetic and environmental factors. In a few cases the genetic make up of people works in such a way as cancer does not develop. In most cases it does cause cancer. So you are one of the lucky few. Also smoking is not the only cause of lung cancer, radon is also a causative agent. However smoking accounts for 90% of lung cancer as well as heat diseases and stroke.
Also by exposing young children in confined spaces such as cars you are increasing the amount of smoke they are forced to inhale increasing their chances of ill health. Not particularly clever.
Oh and just so you know – I’ve got 2 masters degrees in health sciences and epidemiology so know a little bit about this.
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My car is my personal space, as is my home.
If one chooses to enter either, then they know I will spark up a ciggie.
Now, I’ve paid for my car, not the gubbinment. So I shall do as I wish when inside it. However, if THEY will pay for my car then they can dictate exactly what I do in it.
Mine’s an Aston Martin please, Mr Darling!
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I see absolutely no problem with people smoking at all.
Its a free country and people should be allowed to smoke in any private place they own.
However I do wish the Government would start charging greater tax on cigarettes maybe go up to 20 pound for a packet of cigarettes.
Most people who smoke are weak willed and cannot give up the habit so to charge 20 quid for a packet would be a excellent way of raising tax to get us out of the recession.
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