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BANGOR – For Jason Snow, 31, a smoker and father of a young child, the year-old Bangor smoking ban that makes it illegal to smoke in vehicles with a person under age 18 is a no-brainer.
But the longtime smoker wasn’t always fond of the idea.
“At first I didn’t like it, but then I got to thinking about it, and it is a pretty good idea,” he said Friday, as his active 2 1/2-year-old son, Owen, ran around the interview room with plastic Homer and Bart Simpson toys in his hands.
In fact, Snow and his wife, Tobi, who also smokes, don’t light up in front of their son at all and have resorted to smoking in their bathroom, which has a ventilation fan, when they’re at their Brewer home.
“It’s something me and her never do,” he said. “We don’t want to expose him [Owen]. I barely smoke at home. I smoke when I’m out.”
Bangor city councilors made history when they voted Jan. 8, 2007, to ban adults from smoking in any motor vehicles when children are present, making the city the first in Maine, perhaps in the nation, to do so.
The controversial proposition spurred other Maine communities to consider the measure, and next week state legislators will deliberate LD 2085, an act to protect children from secondhand smoke, a proposal that would take Bangor’s ban statewide.
The new Bangor city ordinance took effect Jan. 19, 2007, and allows police to pull over a vehicle when someone is observed smoking with anyone under age 18 in the vehicle.
The law applies to any motor vehicle on any public road within Bangor city limits and violators can be fined $50.
Even though the city ordinance is a year old, no one has been cited and only a few have been issued warnings, Deputy Police Chief Peter Arno said Thursday.
“My sense is that we’re getting a lot of voluntary compliance,” he said.
Arno compared the new vehicle smoking ban with the statewide ban on smoking in restaurants and most bars that took effect in September 1999.
“In that 10 years, we have not cited one person for violating that law, and you don’t see people smoking in bars and restaurants,” he said.
In the last year, he has not seen anyone smoking with a youth in the car, Arno added.
“If we are not going to allow kids under the age of 18 to buy cigarettes, it makes sense that we shouldn’t seal them up in cars and blow smoke in their face,” Arno said. “If you have kids in the car, don’t smoke.”
California became the first state in the nation to ban smoking in vehicles with passengers under 18, a new state law that went into effect at the beginning of January.
The California fine for smoking in a car with a minor is $100, but it is considered a secondary offense, which means it can be enforced only if the driver is stopped for another reason.
While Arkansas and Louisiana both have imposed bans on smoking in vehicles, the Arkansas law pertains to drivers with passengers under age 6 or who weigh less than 60 pounds, and the Louisiana law applies only to those with children under age 13 in the vehicle.
Similar vehicle smoking laws are in place in Australia and are under consideration in England and other European countries.
Town leaders in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, located about an hour north of Halifax, made Canadian history in November when they banned smoking in vehicles carrying children.
In the last year, Maine communities of Veazie and Bar Harbor have considered limiting smoking in cars where minors are present. They are joined by at least 20 states and a number of other municipalities that have done the same.
Jason Snow said he remembers being a child and riding in a car with his parents smoking and “it’s all you could smell.”
He said he wants to protect his child from any possible adverse effects from the toxic fumes, and added: “You smoke a lot less when you have to smoke outside.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
nricker@bangordailynews.net
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