Quote:
Originally Posted by suesully
Massachusetts has banned smoking for a while now...2000 maybe? The ban did hurt restaurant & bar owners a lot, esp. in touristy areas like Cape Cod. Many of them closed down & none of them are doing the business they once did. I guess that is a commentary on drinking & smoking...apparently people decided to just do these things at home rather than go out.
The fact that you can't smoke anywhere here did make it easier for me to quit last year. Not sure where the smoking ban laws are going now...heard about banning it while driving but not sure what happened with that.
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Smoking In Cars: MA Smoking in a car with kids
Posted on Tuesday, March 06 @ 10:28:16 MST by
samantha
Pol eyes fine for smoking in a car with kids
March 5, 2007
By Jessica Fargen, Boston Herald Health & Medical Reporter
A controversial new bill would slap smokers with a fine if they light up in cars with kids, an incendiary idea that’s outraged puffers and civil libertarians while gaining speed nationwide.
“They are going to come into your home next,” said Gary Nolan, national spokesman for The Smokers Club, Inc. “Will we have the food police issuing tickets if your child’s (weight) is out of wack and you are heading into a Burger King?”
Added Dr. Michael Siegel, a Boston University tobacco policy analyst: “This is a disrespect for parental autonomy. We allow parents to let their children play hockey and go roller blading and serve their kids terribly unhealthy food.”
The Massachusetts law, filed by state Rep. Michael Costello (D-Newburyport) at the request of a Salisbury dad, would fine violators $25 for the first offense and $100 after that for smoking in a car with a child who by law must be in a car seat. That means children under 5 or weighing less than 40 pounds. The reasoning is that car seats are easy to spot for a cop who notices someone smoking in a car and children in safety seats are too young to help themselves.
At least a dozen states, including Connecticut and Rhode Island, are considering bans on smoking in a car when a child is present. Louisiana and Arkansas already have similar laws on the books. In Bangor, Maine, an ordinance in effect since January allows police to fine drivers $50 for smoking in a car with anyone under age 18. No one has been cited.
The national push comes as more and more restaurants and bars ban smoking.
A Harvard School of Public Health study published in November found that the second-hand smoke inside cars posed a “potentially serious threat to children’s health,” increasing the risk of ear infections and worsening asthma.
Ken Trofatter, a Salisbury firefighter and father of 2-year-old Colby, approached Costello about filing the bill while his mother, a longtime smoker, was dying of lung cancer.
“I just remember as a kid, my parents smoked in the car. Both my brother and I stuck our heads out the window. It bothers me. I just want to give these kids a little bit of a chance,” he said.
Costello, a father of two, said the law would give a voice to children too young to speak up. But, he said he doesn’t support taking the law into puffers’ living rooms.
“Children can’t say, ‘Mom or dad, the smoke is killing me back here,’ ” he said. “They are unable to communicate that. No one is saying we will come into your house and legislate this.”
Lorna Green of Bridgewater said she believes a 2-year-old relative’s asthma attacks are more severe because his mother lights up when he’s around. When she approached her state legislator about a car smoking ban, she found out Trofatter was one step ahead.
“His little lungs are growing. They need a clean environment,” she said.
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