Leading doctors call for ban on smoking in cars
Twenty of Britain’s most senior doctors call today for a ban on smoking in cars as part of a sweeping expansion of laws to protect children against the effects of inhaling smoke.
The signatories, including 13 presidents of medical royal colleges, urge the Government to bring in laws prohibiting all smoking in vehicles and in public places visited by young people such as parks and playgrounds.
The letter recommends a comprehensive strategy to cut adult smoking and children’s smoke exposure outside and inside the home. About two million children are exposed to cigarette smoke at home, with a child twice as likely to take up the habit if a close family member smokes.
The doctors say that the national strategy must include tobacco price rises, media campaigns, more effective health warnings and better provision of smoking cessation services.
A report today by the Royal College of Physicians warns of the toll on health and the NHS caused by passive smoking. It concludes that more than 300,000 GP appointments and 9,500 hospital admissions a year are caused by the effects of smoke on children, costing the NHS about £23 million. Paediatric health problems attributable to second-hand smoke include 20,000 cases of lower respiratory tract infection, 120,000 cases of middle-ear disease and 200 cases of bacterial meningitis, it estimates. About 40 sudden infant deaths are also caused by passive smoking annually.
The doctors writing in The Times point to the report’s evidence of passive smoking “as a major cause of death and disease in children [which can] be avoided entirely”.
They argue: “Smoke-free legislation needs to be extended much more widely, to include public places visited by children and young people, and including prohibition of all smoking in cars and other vehicles. As doctors we call on the Government to take the necessary action to protect our children’s future.”
The report’s authors, the Tobacco Advisory Group of the Royal College of Physicians, concluded that laws banning smoking in enclosed public places, introduced in Scotland in 2006 and the rest of the UK in 2007, had been highly effective. But there were “still gaps that needed to be closed”.
The change in the law was supposed to cover vehicles used for work but it was rarely enforced, the group said. A total ban would address the problem, and ensure all children were protected. However, it remains unclear how rigorously police officers would enforce any change to criminalise all motorists and passengers who smoke.
John Britton, the report’s lead author, said that new measures could include banning parents from smoking at school gates, but added that it would be difficult to legislate for situations such as family parties in private gardens. “This report isn’t just about protecting children from passive smoking, it’s about taking smoking completely out of children’s lives. Adults need to think about who’s seeing them smoke.”
Parental responsibility
A Department of Health spokesman stressed the role that anti-smoking legislation had played in curbing exposure, but added: “The government is looking at ways to go further to reduce the 9,500 children admitted to hospital every year as a direct result of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke.
“Parents have a responsibility to protect their children by stopping smoking around them in enclosed spaces like their cars and in their homes.”
The Welsh Assembly Government said it had commissioned a tobacco control group to advise specifically on how to protect children, while a Scottish Government spokeswoman said it was conscious smoking in cars was a source of exposure that needed highlighting but had no plans for a ban. Northern Ireland is to conduct its own review.
The driving and smoking lobby groups expressed their anger at the recommendations, arguing that adults did not needs laws regulating every aspect of their behaviour.
Simon Clark, of Forest, which campaigns for smokers’ rights, questioned the figures used in the report, noting that cases of asthma had been rising as the number of smokers had fallen.
“It’s unacceptable to single out smokers and imply that they are solely responsible for the cost of asthma treatments, hospital admissions and asthma drugs for children up to the age of 16.
“We want smokers to be considerate towards those around them, especially children, but changing people’s behaviour should be achieved by education and encouragement not by legislation and enforcement.”
Nigel Humphries, spokesman for the Association of British Drivers, said the car should be seen as an extension of the home and treated as such.
“The car is a private space and it crosses a line to start interfering in it, however much one disapproves of smoking.”
Info from TimesOnline and BBC News
