by Charlotte Randall
-Private vehicles that
are enclosed wholly or partially by a roof.
-Vehicles that have the
sunroof open and air conditioning on.
-Anyone sitting in the
open doorway of a vehicle
The new law has been hailed as a major advancement in the war against
second hand smoke, particularly concerning children. However, others have
questioned if this is enough.
Dangers of Second Hand Smoke:
Second
hand smoke is the smoke inhaled off burning tobacco (cigarettes, cigars, pipe
tobacco and shisha pipes) by someone other than the smoker and is also known as
passive smoking. There is a myth is that second hand smoke has no effect on the
recipient. However this is not the case. Second had smoke contains over 4000
chemicals, of which roughly 250 can cause serious damage to the body, and can
last in the air for over two and half hours after burning, despite windows
being open. In the USA it is estimated that second hand smoke causes 34000
deaths from heart disease and 7300 from lung cancer each year, and other
effects can be strokes, angina and heart failure. However, the effects of
children are predicted to be much worse as their respiratory systems are still
developing and are easily damaged. According to the NHS, children who breathe
in second hand smoke have increased risks of:
-Cot
death
-Asthma,
and can trigger asthma attacks to children who already have asthma
-Respiratory
conditions such as Bronchitis and pneumonia
-Meningitis
-Coughs
and Colds
-Ear
infections such as Otitis Media, which can lead to hearing loss.
Also, there are psychological issues
such as children are more likely to smoke if their parents do.
By
preventing adults from smoking in cars with children these risks will be
seriously decreased. However, the law doesn’t prevent parents smoking in
proximity of children in other places, such as the home.
Other smoking bans:
In
July 2007, smoking in the UK became banned in public areas such as bars,
restaurants and the workplace in order to protect non-smokers from the effects.
More recently, over the summer of 2015, further bans were called for outdoor
public spaces such as the beach and in some areas of the country are trying
voluntary bans that have been put in place, for example in Bristol, in order to
discourage people to smoke in proximity of non-smokers.
Stop smoking completely in public?
Of
course, many would argue that public smoking should stop all together. A key
reason being that people around smokers, in particularly children, don’t choose
to inhale the smoke of others and put their lives at risk. Indeed, this was the
premise of the recent smoking in cars ban. Moreover, it is argued that stopping
smoking in all public areas will persuade people to stop smoking all together
as it will become an antisocial thing to do. In the long term this would be advantageous
to people’s health and those of the people around them. However, the
irradiation of smoking in all public areas would be going against people’s
right of choice to be able to smoke. Also, people who don’t want to breathe in
second hand smoke have every right to just stay away from people that smoke.
Moreover, smoking tobacco is legal and some would consider it to be unfair for
the government to then state that they are not able to smoke in public at all.
Despite this, children, especially with parents that smoke, don’t’ always have little
ability to stay away and it is them who are most effected by passive smoking.
While I think that completely banning smoking in public areas may be a little
drastic and unnecessary, I believe that stopping people smoking in cars with
children is a good step forwards to improving the safety of children around
passive smokers. However, the punishment has not been seen to be a deterrent;
£50 is not a lot of money and is unlikely to put off many people from doing it.
In order for this new law to be a success, many have argued that the
consequences of the action should be more damaging in order that it should
last.
Sources:
http://images2.fanpop.com/image/polls/375000/375786_1265896875343_full.jpg
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