Jump to full article: Concord (NH) Monitor, 2009-03-25
Author: LAUREN R. DORGAN Monitor staff
Intro: House lawmakers yesterday voted down a bill that would ban adults from smoking cigarettes in cars in which children are riding. The bill failed on a narrow vote of 184-167.
On a busy session day, the House also overwhelmingly backed a bill that would ban text-messaging while driving . . .
The debate on the smoking-in-the-car bill pitted medical evidence on the dangers of secondhand smoke against philosophical questions about the rights of individuals to partake in legal activities and practical concerns about how police officers would enforce such a law.
Sponsor Mary Griffin said she took issue with the idea that the bill represented "undue intrusion into parental privacy."
"On the contrary, there is a long-established legal prohibition against endangering the welfare of a child," said Griffin, a Windham Republican.
She reeled off a list of ailments associated with inhaling cigarette smoke, such as asthma and cancer, and she cited a 2006 Harvard School of Public Health study that found cigarettes smoked in cars can generate hazardous levels of smoke in only a few minutes. She said that other states, including Arkansas and Louisiana, have banned smoking in cars with young children.
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