About 200 children per week visit doctors due to effects of secondhand smoke in cars, and as a non-smoker when you’re in a vehicle you can instantly smell the cigarette smoke, growing up my father smoked and cracking of the window did not really help that much.

According to Americans for non-smokers rights there is only a handful of states that have laws against smoking with children in the vehicle and the hazards are higher in a vehicle.

 

When someone smokes in the small enclosed space of a car, people are exposed to toxic air that is many times higher than what the EPA considers hazardous air quality, even when a window is down. Additionally, the gaseous and particulate components of tobacco smoke absorb into the upholstery and other surfaces inside a car, and then off-gas back into the air over the course of many days, exposing passengers to toxins long after anyone actually smoked in the car.

I'm not down on people with the addiction to cigarettes, I do understand it is a hard habit to break. But your young passengers don't have any choice when you light up the vehicle. So there is no federal law forbidding smoking in vehicles with young children and making a law does not just make it go away it comes down to being an adult in making the correct choice for your kids.

More From KOOL 101.7