State senator pushes for smoking ban while kids are in cars
»Play Video
SALEM, Ore. - A bill aimed at banning smoking while kids are in a vehicle found support and expansion Thursday in Salem.
Oregon State Senator Elizabeth Steiner Hayward of Beaverton is backing the bill, known as Senate Bill 444.
Apart from being a state senator, Hayward is a family physician at Oregon Health & Science University and serves as the President of the Oregon Academy of Family Physicians, according to her Oregon Legislature biography. She is also the Director of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute Breast Health Education Program.
"Children are more affected by secondhand smoke, their bodies are still developing and they become more at risk for severe respiratory diseases," Hayward said. "They really don't have a choice often about where they are - certainly when they're in a car, they have no choice about that. They can't get themselves places."
If passed, police could not pull a vehicle over simply for someone smoking inside while children are riding along.
However, if an officer concludes that's the case while a driver is pulled over for another reason, the initial ticket and fine would be $250. A repeat offense would be $500 and a third violation would carry a $1,000 fine.
On Thursday, a senate committee reviewed the bill and expanded it to include all products that generate smoke in a vehicle, including such things as cigars and clove cigarettes. There are also no exceptions, such as drivers saying they had their window down while smoking.
No one was present Thursday to speak out against the bill but those opposed are expected to argue that a vehicle is a person's private and personal space.
"It increases the severity of asthma bronchitis, pneumonia, ear infections and other infectious diseases," Hayward said.
If passed, Oregon would not be the first place to enact such a ban.
"In Britain, for example, where they instituted smoke-free laws of various kinds, the more of those that there are, there's a drop in kids hospitalized for asthma attacks," Hayward said.
You can comment on this story on KATU's Facebook page. Scroll down to find the story.
Smoking is disgusting thing shouldn't be around anybody
Yes what is more important then the lives of children?
Good grief are there not more important thing that Law Enforcement needs to be looking for other that someone smoking a cigarette in their own car ....I do agree its not a good thing at all for children to have to sit in a close area and breathe that smoke but enough of Salem's petty law's ....There is so much drug traffic moving up and down the interstate and roads that need to be looked for there is those who drink and do drugs and choose to drive and put everyone out there in high danger ...There are those who drive like idiots well exceeding the speed limits on all roads and now you want them to put their azz on the line for this .. Unbelievable.........
It must be hard to be a libertarian when you see a true need. Â I'm glad that you're in favor of this bill.
yep
Yes it should be, where I work I see it all the time and the kids look misersable.
just DONT!!!!!! do it near them!!!!!!!
i do its not there choice to die early your making it for them when u smoke around them period wether its in the car at home or in public doesnt matter they can even get it form your clothes did ya know that one?????
Yes it should be illegal. Your not giving your kids a chance to live a health life.
No it is just another form of abuse since it puts their health at risk!!
Your killing your kids with second hand smoke. If you don't smoke in front of them then this law if passed shouldn't matter to you. So many times I see dead beat parents in traffic smoking with kids in the car. Ill vote for it
I certainly hope that while all of you are trying to rid the world of this horrible drug called Tobacco, you are making a contingency plan for where you are going to get the revenue to pay for the Oregon Health Program. If everyone quits smoking, there will be no more Cig tax revenue... Now there's a topic to discuss. Not so easy now is it? How many of you in this thread are receiving State paid health care? If you are the next time you pass a smoker, stop and say thank you. This is a common sense issue, not a legislation issue. Regardless of any laws, you will never regulate common sense...
YES IT IS BAD EVEN IN THE HOUSE
Arkansas already has a law like this. In fact, you aren't supposed to smoke in a car with children under 14.
While I'm NOT an advocate for the government interfering with parents' rights, I agree that we (the people) have an obligation to those that can't defend themselves from even their parents' bad choices. It sickens me to see a child strapped in to a car seat, coughing, while their "protectors" are puffing away. Make no mistake, we all pay for the added healthcare costs for these kids that have health issues due to their forced exposure to their parents' smoke. This kind of legislation could be completely avoided if people had any common sense and actually cared about someone other than themselves. I absolutely think that you should be the "king" of your castle, but even the king should keep the welfare of others in mind with everything he/she does.
smoking it's self should be illegal
there should be strict laws for parents who smoke anywhere near kids, hang them all who do..........
I thought it already was illegal...
I don't think anyone should smoke, let alone with kids in a small area like a car but I also don't like so much government control. even though I don't go to bars or smoke I thought it was dumb for them to ban it from bars.
Yes
Just another few feet down the slippery slope to socialism. Today, it's smoking in cars with kids, extra large sodas, guns, and fatty foods. Tomorrow it will be your right to speak out, your right to assemble, and your right to vote. Idiots.
YES
How exciting!! It's about time I say
Hey! I spawned 'em, and if'n I want to make 'em addicts, I will!
It's sad that politicians even need to come up with a law for this. It is like Mc Donalds having to label their coffee cups âCaution contents may be hotâ.
Dang straight if a person is smokeing in a car with a child in there they dont deserve the child u can kill yourself but leave the child out of it...But i have been told that allready passed over a year ago by a sutherlin cop and its a fat ticket...
YES!! What kind of parents need a law to tell them not to damage their kids?
But if they do pass a law for this the person caught would think twice about smoking in the car with children. It would hit their pocket book where it would hurt the most. Just like driving and texting, a lot of people do whatever they want, never mind how it affects anyone around them. You need laws for these type of people. Also the income from the person caught would help finance the city/county revenue. If you don't smoke , you have no worries and this law would not even affect you. They wouldn't even have a reason to make this kind of law if nobody did it.
Who in there right mind would want to endanger a child with second hand smoke? Seems like common sense to me..
No Smoking!!!
DUH! It's illegal in Cali!! YAY
Absolutely!
no, even though you should not smoke around your children, the goverment should not be allowed to tell you that you can not smoke in your own car with you bought, next would be in your home. there has to be and ended to what the goverment tells you what you can and can do in or on your property
Yes it is so gross when people smoke in their car with children!
I am for that I think it should have been a law along time ago, seeing innocent children in a car with the windows up and grown ups habitually smoking in the car poisoning the children. But seatbelts are law too but I have seen many kids on a parents lap and a police officer right behind the car.It could be a law but will it ever be inforced. And to a earlier comment of making everything illegal someone has to speak for the little ones who cant.So put that in your pipe and smoke it.
I'd vote for it... And for all the people commenting here saying its a bad idea, or it's the gov't taking our rights, remember the rights of the kids who have no choice but to breathe that filthy, lung killing air!!! It pure selfishness to not want this law to be in effect....
Let's make a law allowing the government to do whatever they want about whatever they want. We need a lot more laws. We don't have enough laws on the books now. Let's make everything illegal. I am also a non-smoker.
Ok,so as I agree that you should not smoke with kids in your car. I do not believe another law is the answer, government is to much in our lives as it is, I think education would be a better way to go. keep the government out of our life's. So I say no to this law. I am a non smoker.
It's just kids, right? So what if they die from cancer and lung disease! Who cares as long as we can smoke! (How backwards and selfish can one be?!!).
Allow them to smoke only if their children are smoking, too.
People shouldn't be smoking around kids anyway. It's not good for their health...at least let them become of age or at least old enough to know what is happening and be able to choose to blacken their own lungs themselves, not have their parents or other trusted adults do it for them.
If caught, they should have their cigarettes put out on the corneas.
So, we're going to prohibit parents from smoking with kids in cars. Even if it can be enforced, how are you going to keep them from smoking in the home? It won't make a difference. It won't be enforced. Let's let the cops focus on hard drugs that are tearing our families apart and violent crimes and truly dangerous drivers. I loathe smoking. I still think individual rights trump what I loathe.
Hey y the hell not, the government takes away all our rights anyway
It's funny, nobody seems to remember that smoking cigarettes was never ILLEGAL!
Go ahead and argue and call each other names all you want people, just don't, whatever you do, DO NOT post videos of adorable kitties! THat is just wrong.
Hmmm, KPIC deleted my happy kitten video. What?
I think it's a waste of time and money......it's the parents choice to smoke around their children granted it may not be healthy but who OS the government to say? And who is going to enforce this? There are to many smokers to cop ratio stopping a few or arresting a few won't make a difference......people are going to do what they want just like the talking and texting while driving you can't stop everyone.....why don't we focus on the more important stuff like kids going hungry or veterans with no homes.....come on people why waste time don't the government control is enough? If they going to ban such things they may as well stop producing the junk. The government produces the crap then makes outragess laws........
If you want to smoke, smoke outside away from children. Risk your own life not theirs.
ABSOLUTLEY SHOULD BE AGAINST THE LAW!!