KIDS, SMOKE AND VEHICLES

A bill that would ban smoking inside motor vehicles if a child under the age of 18 is in the vehicle is being considered by the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee. The bill, LD 2085, sponsored by Rep. Pat Blanchette, D-Bangor, is modeled on the ordinance adopted by the city of Bangor a year ago to similarly ban smoking in vehicles when anyone under 18 is present.

The bill, unfortunately, is needed to protect children from a well-established health threat. And it is crafted in a way to avoid creating cumbersome enforcement procedures and expanding bureaucracy. It should be added to the existing body of law on motor vehicle safety.

The legislation will no doubt appear to some like the long arm of government reaching even further into private places. Most Americans view the inside of their vehicles in much the same way as they see their living rooms – private and off-limits to law enforcement. And critics of the bill will chalk it up as yet another example of the so-called nanny state, in which government progressively takes on the role of concerned parent, needlessly – and some would argue, wrongly – protecting people from themselves.

These concerns have some validity, but they should be set aside by the Legislature because this bill is not an amorphous, self-congratulatory effort aimed at vaguely making the world a better place. If enacted, the smoking ban has definite beneficiaries – children. And LD 2085 is not being proposed in the midst of debate about the harm of secondhand smoke. No one would argue that children’s health is not threatened by breathing in cigarette smoke.

That health threat is exacerbated when a child is confined to the small space inside a vehicle. In fact, it almost seems cruel to subject a child to smoke in this manner, and sadly, many adults do so. At least in a home, the child can walk into another room or outside. And banning smoking in a vehicle can be understood as related to other motor vehicle safety laws, such as those addressing exhaust; a vehicle can’t pass inspection if its exhaust system is leaking because carbon monoxide and other gases can enter the compartment.

Enforcement is also relatively easy for police officers. If an officer sees an adult driver or passenger smoking with a person under the age of 18 in the vehicle, the officer can stop the vehicle and issue a written warning or a summons with a $50 fine. A summons can be issued for far less harmful activities, such as squealing tires or failing to have a working taillight, so the punishment hardly seems extreme.

It is properly government’s role to protect minors from the unintentional but dangerous habits of their elders, and LD 2085 does this.