Clear case for smoking ban in cars

SHOULD smoking be banned in cars? Indeed, should there be any limits to the smoking ban where the health of children is put at risk by smokers?

A report from the Royal College of Physicians argues that smoking should be banned in all cars and places where children are found. It says passive smoking causes at least 22,000 new cases of asthma and wheezing in children every year across the UK, as well as even more severe illnesses. Scottish experts also backed the findings of the report, supporting more extreme legislation to combat the effects of passive smoking.

The Scottish Government says there are no current plans to extend the smoking ban to cars. But logic suggests this is the next step. The thrust of the report leaves in no doubt that the ban should be extended and reach into other private spaces where children are at risk.

The civil liberties and tobacco lobbies will squeal. But the national mood continues to edge towards greater legal intervention in the name of child protection and it is time they got with the programme. Few sights depress more than thoughtless adults in supermarket car parks lighting up in their cars with their children trapped in the back.

Critics, of course, do not question an extension of the ban to cars as such, but argue it would be unenforceable. But it is no more so than compulsory seatbelts or a ban on dangerous driving. The law reaches into cars already. And the vast majority would accept the legitimacy of a smoking ban.