Ban On Smoking Inside Cars With Children In UK: Is It A Violation Of Civil Liberties?

Smoking

Smoking is costly to the UK government. Thousands of people for example contract smoking related diseases including lung and throat cancer annually in the UK. The cost of treating these people often runs into millions of pounds, and is borne by the government. The government has tried to reduce this burden by banning smoking in all public places including pubs. It wants to take this step further by proposing to ban smoking inside a car with a child.

Many drivers however consider this latest move by the government to ban smoking inside a car with a child as an infringement of their civil liberties. These people consider their car as their private property and not property of the state. Like other personal belongings, they want to do whatever they like inside their car including smoking.

However, it is not everything that car owners like to do inside their private cars that they are allowed to do by the state. Car owners for example cannot drive while over the alcohol limit. They are also not allowed to drive without a seat belt. The vast majority of car owners recognise these regulations and tend to comply with them. They do not consider complying with these regulations as infringement of civil liberties but consider it as a means of keeping the roads safe for everyone.
 
It will not even be surprising that drivers who are criticising the government for proposing to ban smoking inside a car with a child will support punishment for drivers who are caught driving either while over alcohol limit or without a seat belt. But these errant drivers will also perceive their activities as those that are being done inside their private cars. So when does banning a behaviour inside a private car breach civil liberties?

Aside from the fact that the government already regulates driver’s behaviour inside the car, there is another good reason to ban smoking inside a car with a child. Research shows that smoke lingers inside the car for up to two hours before it vanishes following a cigarette. This means that the passengers inside a car are exposed to passive smoking long after any smoking inside the car. For children whose parents are both smokers and drivers such passive smoking is inevitable and will be a regular occurrence.

For these reasons banning smoking inside a car with a child should not be perceived as infringement of civil liberties. Instead it should be applauded on two grounds. First it will help to reduce the burden that smoking places on the government. Second, it will provide protection for vulnerable children whose parents are both drivers and smokers against passive smoking. Drivers who oppose the proposed ban on smoking inside a car with a child should think twice about their objection to the proposal. This becomes very important if they profess to love their child.