Smoking on the Road

Imagine: You’re driving home from work on a warm evening, so you roll down your windows. There’s a red light ahead, so you slow down to a stop. Then, when you notice the car in the adjacent lane begin to move forward, you turn your head toward the intersection, press the accelerator, take a deep breath, and…Ugh! You just drove through a cloud of cigarette smoke exhaled by the driver in front of you. Disgusting.

Yes, smokers can make the point that drivers constantly inhale carbon monoxide while they’re on the road, which is far more dangerous than a breath or two of secondhand smoke every now and then. So what? That doesn’t mean people should be allowed to puff at will around other cars; it’s a secondhand health hazard that clearly doesn’t need to be paired with the car exhaust resulting from driving and rush hour traffic. With that said, one state is increasing enforcement of a law that protects a smoker's passengers.

Jonesboro, Arkansas police seem to be cracking down on drivers who are seen smoking in their cars with children inside. According to the article I read,

"Arkansas Act 13 makes it a ticketed offense to smoke in a privately owned vehicle with a child in a safety seat under 6 years of age or 60 pounds."

Good for Arkansas! Children of that size don't exactly have a say in, let alone an understanding of, the secondhand smoke consequences that their smoking parents inflict upon them, so they shouldn't have to suffer. But why draw the line at age 6 or 60 pounds? This limit, although somewhat arbitrary, has a scientific explanation:

"Pound for pound they [small children] are going to breathe in more air on a minute by minute basis…they are going to be breathing in more pollutant than an adult is in the same environment." --Dr. Lowery Beck

Personally, I don't think people should be permitted to smoke while driving on public roads--if not for the sake of their own passengers' and other drivers' health, then for safety reasons. And, let's be honest--most smokers on the road don't dispose of their cigarette butts inside their own cars. Unfortunately, my hopes will have to persist for years before smoking is banned from the road.

In the meantime, I think all states--at least those with public smoking bans--should adopt a similar law to Arkansas Act 13, which mandates a $25 fine for drivers who are caught smoking in their cars with small children in them, regardless of whether the windows are up or down. Seems pretty reasonable to me.