With so much information available on the potential harm from secondhand smoke, it’s hard to believe that drivers don’t know to refrain from smoking while carrying children in their cars. But if a recent survey is an indication, adults commonly expose kids to smoke this way, which makes a proposed Bangor ordinance to stop the practice a natural step forward for the city.

A recent study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine reinforces what has been known generally for years: Tobacco smoke inhaled by nonsmokers can hurt their health, and children who are forced to inhale it because they are riding in a car with someone who is smoking are especially vulnerable. For instance, children exposed to secondhand smoke, according to the study, “show greater likelihood of lower respiratory infections, sudden infant death syndrome, ear infections and severity of asthma symptoms.”

A recent survey carried out with the help of Penquis Community Action Program asked 44 women whether they exposed their children to secondhand smoke and under what conditions. Riding in a car was the top reason, with 21 responding yes to that question, though many emphasized that they opened the windows first. Recent studies, however, conclude this is an ineffective strategy – the smoke still gets to the children. No matter the actual number, parents or guardians have no good reason to choose to surround a child with unhealthy tobacco fumes; if it is happening at all, it is happening too often.

Bangor pediatric dentist Jonathan Shenkin has led other doctors in urging Bangor to make subjecting children to cigarette smoke in cars unacceptable. He has the support of the Bangor police as well, who say they could enforce the ordinance, which includes a $50 fine, applied only if a driver were stopped for some other reason. The measure is in line with previously passed state restrictions on smoking in restaurants and bars, which were supported based on protecting workers in these establishments from secondhand smoke. If anything, protecting children in a car might have been expected to come before the protection of adults at their places of work – the employees at least have a limited choice about where they will work; the kids have no choice at all.

The proposed ordinance would make it unlawful for drivers and passengers of any vehicle to smoke tobacco while anyone under 18 is in the vehicle, regardless of whether the vehicle’s windows are down. Similar measures have been adopted in Louisiana and Arkansas, and Maine’s foster-care program already prohibits foster parents from smoking in their vehicles with children present.

It is impossible to like yet another regulation limiting what an individual can do, and the awareness of the harm that comes from cigarette smoke is so pervasive that most people should have gotten the message by now. But for those who haven’t, an ordinance describing the problem and setting a fine is a reasonable answer, and probably overdue.