Should children have more protection when it comes to being exposed to cigarette smoke at home? ?

Question

The evidence and research on the hazards of second hand smoke is irrefutable. And yet millions of adolescents and pre-adolescents are exposed to it daily at home because one or both parents are smokers and the children can say nothing.

Smoking in restaurants, pubs and the work place is banned across Canada and in most States. It is now sweeping across Europe as more governments are acknowledging the health costs associated with smoking. Laws are now being considered to ban cigarette smoking in vehicles when there are children present.

This is no longer about rights, ie: smoker's vs non-smokers. This is about protecting children who have a very limited voice.

Answer 1

I think that children should have a say in this. I grew up with allot of smokers in the house. It was so hard to breath. i cant wait until there are more &more places band we need to do everything in are power to protect all but mostly the children of are future thanks

Answer 2

I was raised in the 60's when everybody smoked, most of the mom's and housewives were taking "mother's little helpers" (prescriptions), cribs were painted with lead-based paint, and we didn't bother to use seat belts.  Many years later, I'm here to tell the story and per the doctor I'm very healthy considering that I was a very wild child in my teens and 20's.  And yes, I still smoke.  I've smoked in front of my child but not up in its face..  

Wrong or right, I have the right to do whatever I wish in my home.  Period.  I agree that it's not the smartest thing in the world to do.  Think about the families who are genuinely mistreated, mentally and physically abused, hungry...now there are some hazards.  I've seen children who were raised in pristine environments turn out screwed up and riddled with health problems.  

No denying that it wasn't my best decision.  However, in my home, and in MY car your rights end.  My family is my family - and again, that's where your's, the government's and everyone else's rights end.  Government is getting way out of hand.  Alcoholism, eating disorders, etc. are as rampant as smoking families, and they should be equally addressed with the smoking issue, but people love to climb on that soap box.  I'm glad I live in a county where I'm free to be right and I'm free to be wrong.

Answer 3

i am a smoker and have two boys one is 4 and the other is 15 months and i WOULD NEVER SMOKE IN FRONT OF THEM OR AROUND THEM, its my choice to smoke not theirs so i would feel disgusted with myself and ashamed of myself if i subjected them to that. I also only smoke occasionally and when i have friends over we have a specific room to smoke in thats away from the family home and very open and airy. And as for smoking in the vehicles its a no go area for me as i just think smoking in front of kids in generall is SICK. im glad it was banned from work places and other areas as a mum i dont do it in front of my kids and i would just go f*ck*ng crazy if some one done it to my kids, i would have no pleasure bringing them out anywhere, hope this helps a littlexx And i TOTALLY SUPPORT THAT!!

Answer 4

Yeah...I'll support that!  Lots of problems can arise from second-hand smoke!

Answer 5

No. Anytime someone wants to "protect the children", what they really mean is "s***w with people and take away more of their rights". And that is exactly what you propose, isn't it?

Let's see, now - how do we better protect children when it comes to being exposed to cigarette smoke at home? Well, we could put a cop in every house that has a kid. But that would take a lot of cops, and a lot of cops smoke, so that wouldn't work.

So, how about we put a video camera on every child's head, and monitor them constantly, and if the authorities see someone smoking a cigarette, they can rush in and arrest them and put the child in an orphanage. But this only catches people who can be seen smoking, and sometimes smoke is invisible.

So maybe we put a smoke detector on the child. But it might go off if it detected say, air pollution, and we can't have that, it is only smoke from cigarettes that kill kids, right? One whiff and they fall to the floor, hard as a carp.

I guess the most effective "protection" we could provide would be to seize babies at birth and take them to centralized child-rearing facilities to be raised in plastic bubbles. Yep, that's the answer!

Wait just a minute, though - years ago, most kids were exposed to strong tobacco smoke on a daily basis. Some parents gave their kids an occasional puff, or actually allowed them to smoke at young ages. Yet allergies and asthma were less common then than they are now! So maybe you are completely wrong. Maybe kids should not only be exposed to smoke, maybe they should be exposed to smoke as infants and taught to smoke as toddlers, as a way to "protect the children" from asthma and allergies.

In summary, there do NOT need to be any new ways to "protect the children". The children are fine, and they don't need yet another way to be taken from their parents.