Priorities?

[observer]

With numerous laws already in existence for all sorts of minor crimes and anti social behaviour - few of which are enforced by the police: along come the anti-smoking lobby with brain storms like banning smoking in cars - no doubt, this will receive the same level of compliance as the ban on using cell phones in cars.

[Evil Sid]

this one is another idea thought up by doctors who say that passive smoking is harming children in cars and so it should be banned.

 

so as a smoker who drives with no children and never likely to carry children in my car, i will be penalised for smoking in my own car when on my own.

 

this will lead to some interesting sights along the roads.

 

first scenario queues of cars pulled over to the side with a line of smokers all standing out side having a quick drag whilst watching out for the "blue meanies"(traffic wardens) as they are illegally parked.

 

second scenario. queues of cars pulled over and waiting Whilst a police officer complete with extra large wad of fines walks along issuing them.

[Paul Kennedy]

Interestingly of course such a ban already exists, for those who drive company vehicles, as they are deemed to be a place of work. It is alas one that I see regularly flouted.

 

PS Wonder if the ban will apply to soft top cars....when their roof is down...guess it could be argued that they are similar to a smoker's shed.

 

PPS Doesn't the Exchequer still need the ?8 billion tobacco duty it collects each year.

[Bill]

Perhaps the doctors that are calling for the bans which I believe, include fully open spaces like public parks where children may be, could explain why cases of asthma in children are on the increase when the general quality of the air has been improving for decades.

 

Bill

[Peter T]

You can't ask questions like that Bill. They might have to reveal the truth.

[harry hayes]

Think I posted a year or so ago on an old smoking thread. When lobbyists embark on a crusade, they will never stop.

 

Happy days

[safeway56]

These anti-smoking fascists are allowed to make the most outrageous claims without a shred of evidence, such as cot death being blamed on passive smoking. Also the increase of asthma in children due to passive smoking. When I was growing up in the last Ice Age almost all adults smoked yet I never knew of a single case of asthma in any of my contemporaries. The case could be made out that an increase in passive smoking could reduce the incidence of asthma in young people. The statistics prove it.

How my smoking alone in my own car harms others is just baffling.

The last 13 years of this politically correct Big Brother type of government has turned me from being a left wing loony into something of a Libertarian and since they won't be putting up any candidates around here I won't be voting since whatever I do won't make the slightest difference.

[observer]

Perhaps this will prove a bridge too far for the lifestyle facists, and a usually ovine British public will just begin to ignore this trivia en masse - cos if we don't, they'll go on and on - booze, diet, high risk sports, high speed driving etc etc.

[LymmParent]

I thought high speed driving was already banned, Obs?

[observer]

wait for 20mph on M/Ways!

[LymmParent]

I'm sure there are many motorway commuters who would dearly love to go that fast as they crawl through yet annother set of roadworks......

[observer]

.. that would allow drivers to get out for a smoke!

[Legion]

We should be more concerned about the private operators running our school bus services as they sit there flouting engine idling times (5 minute) laws with the oldest of buses which emit the worst kind of cancer causing particulates (black carbon, lead, etc)

which puts kids according to a US study 46 times more likely to suffer cancer later in life.

 

and yet our kids sit on these buses which are still, while these dangers float around them for upto 30 minutes a day (six times the time allowed by law)

[observer]

An interesting point: the health facists are trying to blame the high levels of child asthma on smoking BUT: when I was at school, the house, pubs, any enclosed space was generally full of ciggy smoke; then you went outside to sample the chimney smoke from houses and factories - and woe betide us if it was foggy = smoggy. And surprise surprise, hardly a kid in class had asthma!

[LymmParent]

Yes, Obs, but that was because a quarter of your generation died before school age. Kids with asthma didn't get to class at all, they were either at home gasping and blue or already dead. It's like premature babies - you see a lot more nowadays, but that's because they stand a chance of surviving.

 

It's a sidebar issue anyway, asthma. Smoking is bad for you. If you choose, as an adult, knowing the risks, to do it, then I respect your right to do so. But getting children hooked on nicotine before they can even say the word is all wrong. People shouldn't smoke around children.

[Peter T]

It's a bit of a nonsense argument really.

I knew a lad at school who had asthma and played rugby for the school. Paul Scholes has asthma.

 

As for the smoking argument, a lot of kids and adults smoke and live to a ripe old age. Kids in smoking families live to a ripe old age.

 

I agree it is not good, but most of the things we do with our bodies are not good.

When the smoking police get everyone to stop, they will start on something else. Alcohol? Restaurants?

It is what they do, and OVERKILL reigns supreme.

[observer]

We're not talking 19th C here LP; but the generation that grew up with free school meals and milk, cod liver oil and vaccinations - and unlike today, asthma at school was a rarity - nowadays, they even have special lockers for each kid to store their nebuliser! The kind of pollution thas HAS increased since, has corresponded to the increase in motor vehicles - can't see them trying to ban cars though! .

[Evil Sid]

note they did not advocate a ban on fast food to cut obesity.

 

also seen the headline this morning that the man in charge of public protection in warrington is for it.(the smoking in cars ban that is).

 

didn't see his input when we were a foot deep in snow and people were slipping and sliding in every street, but that is not something that the public need protecting from

[safeway56]

Unless Obs was born in the 16th century then your statement about a quarter of his generation not making it to school age is quite simply ridiculous. Unless of course you made the statement with tongue in cheek.

[observer]

.... and I'm the Flying Dutchman!

[LymmParent]

Of course it was slightly tongue in cheek, but only slightly. Partly a dig at Obs' incredible age!

 

UK stillbirths and infant deaths around 1940 were something like 7-8% of full-term pregnancies (although there's no knowing how many miscarriages there were on top of that - and not all stillbirths were recorded) as opposed to less than 1% nowadays. The mortality rate amongst live births has decreased by something incredible like 85%.

 

But sick children were routinely kept at home or sent to a sanatorium, whereas now children are actively encouraged to get as close to "normal" as possible, even where they have quite serious conditions. So it would be a rarer thing in 1940 to see a severe asthmatic at school than it is today.

[observer]

So, in the past, the genetically weak were weaned out, by nature, at birth or shortly after?

[Peter T]

You can't really compare still birth figures. In the 40's women were physically working harder, as compared with today. Not many use a dollytub or mangle to do the washing, nor do they beat carpets, not to mention working in factories.

[observer]

They've never had it so good!

[Dizzy]

You are probably both right there Obs & Peter...

 

If I had to wash clothes, bedding and the likes in the same way that my mother and grandparents etc did then my two would be walking around naked and sleeping under old newspapers

 

As for beating carpets I wonder why they didn't just stick to wooden floorboards and a stiff broom.

 

Guess we are not so hard done to really which in turn makes blokes lives even easier