Citing the health threat to children, Nassau County Legislators Judi Bosworth (D-Great Neck) and Judy Jacobs (D-Woodbury) have proposed a prohibition on smoking in vehicles where children are present.
The bill introduced by the legislators would protect children by banning smoking in all motor vehicles in Nassau County where at least one passenger is younger than 18 years of age.
“In the 1960’s ‘Mad Men’ generation, we allowed children to stand up in the car or sit on our laps, we didn’t wear seatbelts or have air bags and we smoked cigarettes in the car when children were present. Today, we know that all of those things are potentially harmful and yet the only one the law still allows is smoking with kids in the car,” Bosworth said. “Let’s protect our children’s lungs by passing this overdue legislation.”
Jacobs added, “This matter is extremely important to the health and future of our children. We, as adults, must raise awareness to protect the most vulnerable among us. Let us be their voice by passing this legislation.”
The legislators would seek to impose a fine of up to $1,000 for each violation. A proposed state law would carry a fine of $100 for anyone caught smoking with children aged 14 or younger.
The county legislature’s presiding officer Peter Schmitt (R-Massapequa) has declined to put the proposed legislation filed last November on the legislative calendar, preferring to see what happens with the proposed state law before putting it before the county legislature, according to Schmitt spokeswoman Christina Brennan.
Schmitt feels that if the state Legislature enacts a similar measure, a county bill “would be redundant,” Brennan said.
Among the bill’s backers are doctors, representatives of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Tobacco Action Coalition, the LI Perinatal Forum, the American Cancer Society, the Manhasset Coalition against Substance Abuse, and the Great Neck Breast Cancer Coalition.
Great Neck Village Mayor Ralph Kreitzman, who was at the forefront of an initiative to ban smoking on sidewalks in the village of Great of Neck, also joined in supporting the proposed law that would seek to protect children from the potential health problems spawned by exposure to second-hand smoke.
Part of a 2006 report from former acting Surgeon General Kenneth Moritsugu on involuntary exposure to second-hand smoke entitled “Children and Second-hand Smoke Exposure” enumerated the dangers inherent to children in close proximity to it.
Moritsugu’s report said that because their bodies are developing, infants and young children are especially vulnerable to the poisons in second-hand smoke. Exposure to it can cause acute lower respiratory infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia in infants and young children and are at increased risk for ear infections.
Exposure to second-hand smoke also causes respiratory symptoms, including cough, phlegm, wheeze, and breathlessness, among school-aged children, the surgeon general’s report said.
