I have this pet hate. Now I know that smoker’s have rights and I am all for that. I personally don’t smoke, but I did smoke 5 years ago. It got to the stage where I was
smoking more and more. When I met my husband I gave up smoking. Yes ex smokers are the worst preachers, but I feel it is our responsibility to inform the world of the
dangers of smoking. Seeing as I am an ex
smoker I have personal experience of smoker’s right’s and needs. I cannot stand to see
parents smoking in front of their children. A loving
Parent cares about the health of their
children and will go to any length to protect their children’s health.
Children have smaller lungs than adults and it is selfish to smoke in front of them. Why should children have to suffer? It is bad enough that smoker’s have to shorten their own lives by carrying out this filthy habit. However children don’t have a choice. They cannot turn round and ask their mother or father not to smoke. Young children don’t even know the dangers or harm that their parents are doing to them. I personally feel this is paramount to child cruelty. It is the parent’s choice to smoke and they are well aware of the dangers to themselves and also to their children. It is therefore their choice to harm their children. Why should this be allowed to happen? Why should we turn away and pretend this is not happening? We need to do something to protect the lives of children.
I was pleased when I heard about the English ban on smoking in public places. This came into effect on 1st July 2007. It’s a good thing we are waking up to the dangers of smoking, but I still feel that not enough is done to protect the lungs of children from their parent’s filthy habit.
A Google search
brought up an article in “USA Today” 11/28/2006.
“Former smoker Bob Mathis, a Democratic state representative in Arkansas, sponsored a law that bars smoking in a car carrying a child young enough to require a car seat. It took effect in July. A violator can be fined $25 but can get out of it with proof of participation in a smoking-cessation program. A similar law took effect in Louisiana in August.
"We have laws on the books in every state of the union against child abuse," Mathis says. "This is a form of child abuse."
I was pleased when I read this, but so far in the UK we have only got to the smoking ban in public places and as far as I know it is not classed as child cruelty to smoke in front of children. A news article in the Telegraph 02/07/2007 urged children to stand up for their rights and put pressure on their parents not to smoke near them. Educators were brought into schools to teach children about the dangers of second hand smoke.
In Friday, 28 January, 2005 the BBC brought out an article that states, “Children regularly exposed to smoking are three times more likely to contract lung cancer in later life than those in non-smoking homes, research suggests.”
This leaves me with one last question. With all these articles and people realising the dangers of smoking near children, the fact it can cause cancer and is abusive to children. Why then have the British government not brought out a ban that makes it illegal to smoke near children?
More abstracts about the Save Their Lungs