The national anti-smoking law, which entered into force on January 1, 2006, and prohibits smoking in public places has been very positive for the health of children, cases of childhood asthma and premature births were reduced. However, the law continues to allow smoking while driving, even if there are minors inside the vehicle.
But the Balearic Government wants to end this, so it plans to include various restrictive measures in the new Addictions Law, which will be approved in 2018. One of those measures, which we certainly applaud, is precisely to ban smoking in cars where children travel.
A necessary measure
With the aim of reducing smoking and creating smoke-free spaces to protect children, there are several countries that prohibit smoking in the car in the presence of minors, such as Australia, Cyprus, South Africa, some regions of Canada and some states of the United States. In 2015 he joined France Y United Kingdom, and later on, Ireland.
In Spain, at national level, this prohibition does not exist, although it has been proposed. The Collegiate Medical Organization of Spain (WTO), the body that represents all the Official Medical Associations at the state level, has urged the Government to ban by law smoking in cars where children and pregnant women travel. He considers that doing so represents a “tort, a form of abuse towards minors and an attempt against their health”.
The desirable thing would be for parents to be sensitized from another side, so that they themselves are, knowing the damage it produces, choosing not to do so, but seeing that it continues to happen, the answer must be blunt: smoking in the car should be prohibited when Children, don't you think?
Therefore, we applaud that the Balearic regional executive has decided to take action on the matter with a new law that is being drafted, and is expected to be approved in the coming months. It will be included in the new addiction law and will be responsible for replacing the current regional addiction regulations of 2005, which according to María Ramos, general director of Public Health and Participation of the Balearic Government, "is very outdated."
Children, passive smokers
Children do not choose to smoke, and yet they receive second-hand the harmful effects of tobacco Being close to someone who smokes. Many parents are not aware of the damage they produce in their children by continuously exposing them, for years, to tobacco smoke.
Smoking at home in front of children hurts your health, but inside the car even more. Tobacco smoke can be up to 11 times more toxic than that of bars and up to 23 times more than can be concentrated in a house. To be a small and closed space the smoke is concentrated.
When adults smoke, they are not only damaging their health, but also that of the people around them, and children are the most affected, since they are especially susceptible to the toxic substances of tobacco. A study has revealed that 90 percent of children living with at least one smoking parent, has high levels of carcinogens of tobacco in the urine.
Children become passive smokers increasing the risk of being smokers in the future and suffer from childhood infections and respiratory diseases such as asthma.
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