Imagine you’re taking your 12-year-old son to soccer practice. You light up a cigarette in the car and wind up getting pulled over by a police officer who slaps you with a fine for smoking while traveling with your child in the car.
That scenario could become reality if a bill, expected to be introduced next week, becomes law.
While few would argue smoking is a bad habit, the likelihood of motorists facing penalities while driving in Georgia with children in their cars raises questions of whether the legislation is tantamount to government overreach.
When does a law become more punishment than protection? What hurts children more, some observers wonder, if parents can’t pay the fine and wind up in jail.
“It’s punishing parents for something that is, in effect, legal,” said Benita Dodd, vice president of The Georgia Public Policy Foundation, a free-market think tank in Atlanta. “It’s government overreach. It’s nanny government.”
Beyond that, Dodd said the measure would “tax and overwhelm law enforcement.”
The author of House Bill 18, Rep. Sandra Scott, D-Rex, insists the bill is an effort to protect children from second-hand smoke while riding in a car. The bill is still being tweaked and is expected to be introduced by Tuesday, Scott said.
“We all know it’s affecting the children,” Scott said. “This’ll help eliminate some of the intake of smoke in such a small space. People think it’s a good bill but you’re going to have a little pushback.”
Second-hand smoke causes numerous health problems in infants and children, including frequent and severe asthma attacks, respiratory infections, ear infections, and sudden infant death syndrome, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC recommends not smoking when children are in vehicles. The American Lung Association notes that second-hand smoke is responsible for more than 150,000 lower-respiratory infections in children annually.
“I’d have to look at the legislation. I certainly think it’s an issue worthy of discussion and consideration,” said June Deen, Atlanta-based vice president the American Lung Association. “Anything we can do to reduce illness and educate parents about health concerns about second-hand smoke is a worthy opportunity.”
A similar measure - Senate Bill 130 - to ban motorists from smoking died in the House of Representatives two years ago. That bill would have made it a misdemeanor for motorists to smoke with a child under the age of 15 in the car.
The failure of that legislation didn't deter Stockbridge officials from passing a measure recently banning motorists traveling with kids from smoking. Those caught smoking could face a fine of up to $500. Stockbridge is the only city in Georgia with such a ban.
“I wanted us as a city to adopt it as an ordinance,” said Stockbridge City Councilman John Blount who sought the measure after working with numerous children with breathing problems. “Ordinances and laws should be implemented anytime someone’s rights are being violated. In this case it’s a child’s right and health being affected.”
Scott said she pursued legislation after a fellow teacher told her about children she was seeing in her class struggling with respiratory issues.
“One little boy had chronic breathing problems. He was always out of school,” said Scott’s co-worker Tabitha Guess, a kindergarten teacher at Toney Elementary School in Decatur. “He was falling behind because of the breathing issue. When I’d go to the child’s backpack, it always smelled like smoke. I talked to the parents and told them about the dangers of smoking and they said they were working on (quitting smoking).”
Guess likened the problem to child abuse.
“Something needs to be done to protect the children,” she said. “We protect them when they’re being abused. This is a form of abuse. We have to look at it that way.”
The head of a major law enforcement group in Georgia concedes such a law would “create additional burden” on law enforcement.
“If our legislature believes it’s a violation of law, our officers merely enforce it. I don’t know if it’s a good piece of legislation. There’s a lot of variables. It depends how well the case is made,” Frank Rotondo, executive director of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police said. “Will the next step be you can’t smoke in your house if you have children?”
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