Ban smoking in cars with kids, health lobbies say

Several Canadian health lobby groups are joining the international push to ban smoking in cars when there are children present.

While some provinces — British Columbia and Ontario — have been cool to the idea, Nova Scotia's adoption of the ban in December prompted "a groundswell of change across Canada," Rob Cunningham, a policy analyst for the Canadian Cancer Society, said in a news release on Jan. 16.

Majority of smokers favour ban

The same day, the society released a poll indicating that:

• Most Canadians (82 per cent) support banning smoking in vehicles with children younger than 18.
  
• Even 69 per cent of smokers support such a ban.

Janice Willett, head of the Ontario Medical Association, said Tuesday that with smokers in the car, children are being put at risk of heart disease, infections and asthma.

The association recommended a ban in a 2004 position paper, which pointed to a Colorado study that suggested tobacco smoke in cars is 23 times more toxic than smoke in houses, because cars have a much smaller volume.

Aside from the Cancer Society, other health organizations and lobby groups as well as some individuals and communities are working to promote the ban:

• Ontario Liberal MPP David Orazietti introduced a private member's bill in December to ban smoking in vehicles when children are inside.
  
• The Peterborough (Ont.) County-City Health Unit started an online petition Monday to support Orazietti's bill.
  
• A poll done in December for the Ontario Tobacco-Free Network reported results similar to those of the Cancer Society poll.

Ont., B.C. not open to new law

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and B.C. Health Minister George Abbott have both rejected the idea.

"I think that's a major step forward and not a step I'm prepared to take at this time," Abbott said in November.

Laws banning smoking in vehicles with children have been passed in California, Arkansas, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, some U.S. cities, and the Australian states of South Australia and Tasmania, the Cancer Society said.

Other jurisdictions are also considering the idea, it said.

The society’s survey of 2,032 adult Canadians was done by telephone between Dec. 12, 2007, and Jan. 3, 2008. The sample is considered accurate to within plus or minus 2.2 percentage points 19 times out of 20.