This is a Monday Aug. 25, 1997 file photo of a Chinese man smoking a cigarette while reading to his daughter, under an overpass in Beijing. Second-hand smoke kills more than 600,000 people worldwide every year, according to a new study. In the first analysis of the global impact of second-hand smoking, researchers analyzed data from 2004 for 192 countries. They found 40 percent of children and more than 30 percent of non-smoking men and women regularly breathe in second-hand smoke.
Associated Press
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SALT LAKE CITY — Tyler Adams knows what it is like to nearly suffocate from not being able to breathe.
He and two of his siblings suffer from severe asthma that was exacerbated every time their grandparents, who were heavy smokers, would light up around them.
"That's not a fun thing to go through," the Hunter High School student told the Health and Human Services Interim Committee on Wednesday.
He encouraged lawmakers to support legislation that would prohibit adults from smoking in a vehicle when a child under age 15 is present.
"We are essentially forcing a child to smoke when it is actually illegal for a child to smoke," said Rep. Patrice Arent, D-Salt Lake City, who is sponsoring the draft bill for a second time. HB89 failed to reach a final vote during the 2011 Legislature.
Lawmakers have attempted to pass similar legislation three times in the past, only to be turned away by those who favor parental rights.
Rep. Brad Daw, R-Orem, said he opposes the proposed bill because it "interferes with people's lives" and individual choice.
"Smoking is still a legal activity," Daw said. "It's a filthy habit, and I don't want to be around anyone who smokes, and I certainly don't want them near my children, but it's their right."
Car seats faced the same type of opposition when state leaders first attempted to make using them a law, said Dr. Tom Metcalf, a retired pediatrician and former Utah lawmaker.
"The health of children trumped ideology," Metcalf said, adding that when the law finally passed in 1982, it established only minimal penalties for misuse.
"What the law really did was educate people," he said.
Only a small portion of kids are affected by secondhand smoke in vehicles, Metcalf said, "but they are affected."
Sen. Pat Jones, D-Salt Lake City, supported the proposed legislation and said she hopes that with the new secondhand smoke rule, parents will think twice about smoking at all.
Children are especially vulnerable to secondhand smoke, said Dr. Kevin Nelson, a University Hospital pediatrician who founded Pediatricians Against Secondhand Smoke after treating many children with asthma whose parents smoke.
There are more than 250 toxic chemicals in cigarette smoke that lingers in the air — and more than 50 of those are proven to cause cancer, Nelson said.
20 Sep, 2012
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Source: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865562762/Lawmakers-making-another-attempt-at-prohibiting-smoking-in-cars-with-children.html
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