MLAs want smoking banned in vehicles
FREDERICTON - New Brunswick must continue to clamp down on exposure to second-hand smoke, including in vehicles with children on board, says the chairman of a legislative wellness committee.
Chris Collins, the Liberal MLA for Moncton East, said Friday that the government should extend the province's smoking ban to vehicles containing children.
The move would bring New Brunswick in line with a number of provinces that have already outlawed smoking while driving with children and youths.
That list includes Nova Scotia, British Columbia and Ontario. The New Brunswick government is mulling the idea, as is Prince Edward Island.
Collins' wellness committee, made up of both Liberal and Conservative politicians, tabled its report Friday. It contains 49 recommendations aimed at improving the province's lacklustre record on tobacco use, inactivity and high obesity rates.
The report says second-hand smoke is still a problem, despite a ban on smoking in most indoor public places.
"There are a lot of different places where we still smell smoke," said Collins, noting he would also like to see larger buffer zones around buildings.
Kenneth Maybee, president of the New Brunswick Lung Association, has already written to Health Minister Mike Murphy calling for a ban on smoking in vehicle.
"We're 100-per-cent behind it and believe it should happen," he said.
According to Maybee, smoke in a confined space, such as a car, is 23-times more powerful than outside.
That's a problem, he said, considering the 3,000 chemicals contained in cigarette smoke, many of which are carcinogens.
Maybee said 38,000 Canadians will die prematurely this year from smoking related illnesses. Children, he noted, are even more susceptible.
Though smoking rates have dropped in the province, Maybee said about a quarter of New Brunswickers remain hooked.
Nova Scotia was the first province to ban smoking in vehicles with children, which some critics liken to child abuse. The law there, which applies to children under the age of 19, took effect April 1 and involves a fine of nearly $400.
Ontario just passed its bill last month, with the support of all three parties.
"This is about protection of our most vulnerable citizens - children who do not have a voice," Ontario Health Promotion Minister Margarett Best said at the time.
Drivers and passengers in Ontario will be fined up to $250 if they don't butt out in cars carrying children under the age of 16.
However, Mychoice.ca, a smokers' rights group financed in part by the tobacco industry, is concerned the ban will eventually extend to private homes.
"This ban in cars with kids is just a stepping stone for our houses," stated Arminda Mota, president of Mychoice.ca.
"This has nothing to do with cutting smoking rates.
"All they want is to criminalize smokers and go into the homes."
The wellness report also calls for government to restrict tobacco marketing to children, by clamping down on new tobacco products like cigarellos and snus, a fruit-flavoured chew.
A ban on so-called kid-friendly tobacco flavourings is supported by Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, who say government should mandate standard packaging for all tobacco products.
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And this says nothing about the people that are asthmatic or allergic to some of the chemicals in smoke, who have even far greater risk having to walk through this.
As far as the car goes, this should be a no-brainer to anybody who cares about kids.