Politics & Government

Speak Out: Should Drivers Who Smoke With Children in the Car Be Fined?

Maryland's state senate passed a bill Wednesday that would hand down $50 fines for smoking drivers with kids in the car.

Some Maryland legislators are poised to add "smoking in a vehicle that is also transporting children" to the list of vehicular offenses that are punishable in the Free State, but in few other places. 

The state senate passed a measure Wednesday that would impose a $50 fine on adults caught lighting up in a car carrying a child under 8. Senate Minority Leader E.J. Pipkin, a Republican, decried the bill as Maryland moving toward becoming a "nanny state," The Washington Post reported

Sen. Katherine Klausmeier (D-Baltimore County) said she would prefer education and advertisements, not laws. 

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“A little kid in a baby seat doesn't have any option but to be there,” said Sen. Bobby A. Zirkin (D-Baltimore County), the bill's lead sponsor. 

During a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee in February, advocates from the Maryland Department of Mental Hygiene, Johns Hopkins University, the Legislative Resource Center and the Maryland Group Against Smokers, spoke in support of the bill.

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The Harvard School of Public Health conducted a study in 2006 that found that secondhand smoke pollution in cars was higher than in similar studies of bars.

Smoking just half a cigarette in the car can result in pollutant levels up to 10 times the hazardous limit designated by the Environmental Protection Agency, even with the windows down, according to a 2007 study by Stanford University.

Writing in response to a Feb. 11 article about the proposed bill, a Silver Spring Patch commenter Jewel Barlow said that laws like this are a "misplacement of effort and a potential infringement on individual liberties."

Barlow commented that lawmakers should focus on "the most important things that cannot be done by small groups such as highways, reliable fire and rescue services, utilities that are monopolies, public education systems, ensuring that all contracts and regulations are handled within fiscally responsible budgets, etc."

A similar bill passed the Maryland Senate in 2012, but died in the House, where this year's law is headed. 

Smoking in cars with minors is illegal in just four other states, according to a story by Capital News Service—California, Washington, Maine and Arkansas. A similar bill in Virginia passed the Senate in February, but died in the state's House. 

What do you think? Is this bill one rule too far for the state? Tell us in the comments. 


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