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NEW YORK [NBC] — Legislators on Long Island are pushing a new bill that would ban smoking in a car when there is a minor present.

Long Island Proposes Car Smoking Ban

NEW YORK [NBC] — Legislators on Long Island are pushing a new bill that would ban smoking in a car when there is a minor present.

The ban, which has been introduced to the legislature in Nassau County, would make it illegal to light up in a car if someone under the age of 18 is riding along. Penalties could include a $1,000 fine.

Nassau County Legislator Judi Bosworth, who co-sponsored the bill along with Woodbury Legislator Judy Jacobs, says part of the aim is to “raise consciousness” about the dangers of secondhand smoke on children.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, which has a program advocating smoke-free cars, exposing children to secondhand smoke is responsible for increases in asthma attacks and respiratory tract infections.

Bosworth said the move to ban smoking in cars with kids isn’t new. Several states, including Maine, Louisiana, Arkansas and California have versions of the law.

She adds that since the 1960s, laws requiring car seats and seat belts have made kids safer as they ride in cars.

“You’re not even allowed to take a newborn home from a hospital without a proper car seat. So strangely, the only dangerous element left [for kids] is smoking in a car,” Bosworth said.

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3 Comments

  • Stupid

    And when they get home, the parents smoke in the house. So what was gained?

  • Dovid

    More nonsense, after 40 years of the war on drugs and seeing its failure as well as the unintended in consequences from having a black market via gangs. So what do these politicians think makes sense MORE PROHIBITION! It didn’t work with alcohol, it is failing miserably with what is deemed “hard drugs” and it will fail with tobacco. These smoking laws are in the same spirit with prohibition laws except instead of banning it to get people to quit, the nanny state is trying a new method of just regulating and taxing it to death.