Prohibit Smoking in Vehicles with Minors Present

We are past due for a law to be passed that would prohibit smokers from smoking in a vehicle with children, under the age of 18, present. The current cut off age for Illinois is 8 years of age or younger. Second-hand smoke affects children and taxpayers because we've all got to pay their medical bills. Children are more susceptible to health defects related to second hand smoke than adults are.

It would be beneficially to make this a primary offense, as to allow police to pull people over when sighted smoking in vehicle with minors. Moreover, there should be a fine attached to each minor present-perhaps punishable by a fine between $150-$1500 depending on number of strikes for this offense.

I'm not proposing a bill that would allow police to hassle teens, cause an enforcement nightmare, or impose on people's personal space; But one that protects the innocent who are unable to voice their concerns - those who do not know that their personal space is being invaded by carcinogens and those that do not know how to say stop.

FACTS:
"Children are the innocent victims of second-hand smoke. Second-hand smoke (also called environmental tobacco smoke) is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe or cigar and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. Studies reveal that secondhand smoke causes about 3,000 deaths each year from lung cancer in non-smokers and an estimated 22,700-69,600 deaths per year from heart disease in adult nonsmokers." (http://www.hazelden.org/web/public/afprev70625.page)

"A 2004 position paper by the Ontario Medical Association stated: Research has shown that [second-hand smoke] can reach very high levels in vehicles.24 The paper also suggested children have higher respiratory rates and metabolisms than adults, which makes [second-hand smoke] exposure in vehicles a serious problem for children associations paper included a recommendation to ban tobacco use in vehicles transporting children. A 2008 Canadian Cancer Society press release referenced young passengers respiratory rates, along with immature immune systems, as reasons that children are more severely affected by exposure to second-hand smoke than adult. The press release linked second-hand smoke to increased risk of asthma and ear infection in children and is related to sudden infant death syndrome and respiratory health." (Emily Yearwood-Lee, reference librarian of the Legislative Library of British Columbia).

"I understand smokers saying this would be their right to smoke, however I would say it's also the child's right to be able to breathe," Senator Gwen Howard