Smoking is banned in public from next year because of obvious health risks so....?

Question

are parents who choose to smoke around their children actually conducting a form of physical child abuse.

A parent can be charged for smacking a child, why can't they be charged for putting their long term health at risk.

I know smokers may give me abuse for this question, but try and answer this logically, for these few moments don't let the fags rule your head

Answer 1

We smokers have logic; it's the evil nicotine monster that doesn't.

I don't agree with banning smoking in public, because for the most part they have not justified the move as they should have and it is not being implemented in a way as to respect smokers rights, it is all very anti-smoking rather than pro-quitting as it should be. But I digress.

Yes I think smokers who have children are committing child abuse, but then there are a lot of things that are child abuse that are overlooked – ear piercing with piercing guns and unnecessary infant circumcision being two such examples, also feeding your children nothing but Gregg's pasties.

In all fairness being a parent starts long before you conceive, in an ideal world smokers wouldn't have children given as the chemicals within cigarettes remain within their body even long after they quit smoking and so effect the children within their bodies as well – I plan to have children, they may very well suffer from my current addiction, but then of course they will also suffer from my use of commercial toiletries and the other pollution in the world, there are a lot of things that result in poor health of children, nothing is done to prevent such things.

Parents shouldn't smoke around their children, in my mind if you are smoking while in the same room or area as your child then you are committing a form of child abuse. I also think this has to be taken into consideration with terms of going elsewhere to smoke as well – there was research just a few months ago saying that parents who smoke, even when away from their children, can still cause deaths of babies who sleep with them because the CO2 still held within their bodies for several hours after they have had a smoke outside of their home away from direct contact with their baby.

You do have to take into consideration thought that smokers do need to smoke, a good parent will quit smoking when parent but because of our anti-smoking society we do not support the pro-quitting means to help mothers (and fathers) quit long-term such as using Easyway and similar methods, instead we have anti-smoking methods such as nicotine replacement that insist smokers quitting must suffer, this does not work long-term.

I think smoking is a social problem, if a parent is smoking right in front of their child they are to blame for the risk to their child's health, if smoking away from the child society is to blame for the risk to the child's health.

Answer 2

As i'm aware passive smoking causes no ill affects to third party nor is there any positive scientific or medical evidence to proof otherwise.
JUNE 2006 ... Today's report by the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee - in which leading peers argue that a ban on smoking in public places is an over-reaction to the 'problem' of passive smoking - comes as no surprise to FOREST.

Last year we commissioned and published a substantial 50pp report entitled Prejudice & Propaganda: The Truth About Passive Smoking. It featuring a foreword by FOREST president Lord Harris of High Cross which was also published as a stand alone essay, 'Smoking Out The Truth: a Challenge to the Chief Medical Officer'.

According to Harris, who was general director of the Institute for Economic Affairs from 1957 to 1989, "The anti-smoking brigade displays a cavalier contempt for the serious discipline of epidemiology which studies the relative risks of various diseases with a single identifiable cause. Instead, these passive thinkers follow a strict party line, twisting and stretching their calculations beyond breaking point."

In our experience few doctors, politicians or civil servants have bothered to study the evidence on passive smoking - they have neither the time nor the inclination. The reality, as our research demonstrates, is that the risk generated by passive smoking in a public place is so small it cannot possibly justify a ban on smoking in every pub, club and bar in the country, especially those with designated smoking rooms or decent ventilation.

Passive smoking is a Propaganda tool for politicians to gain votes, Drinking is far more destructive in society as a whole. I'm not condoning smoking but it's a choice that people choose as as drinking.

Answer 3

Wel I don't think that it should be seen as child abuse. People deny their children certain medical care because of religion, some people may use profanity all day long, and some people even push the hell out of their kids to go to college and stuff, but none of that is considered child abuse. If I choose to smoke a cigarette in my home that should be my choice. Especially if I can't do it anywhere else. I smoke on my porch so my daughter isn't around the smoke. But that's because she has bronchitis. but if she didn't i probably would still smoke in my home.

We have too many choices taken away from us as human beings and I think soon we'll ALL be the same emotionless beings with no mind of our own one day.

Answer 4

Yes it is some form of abuse. It absolutely riles me when I see someone smoking for example in the car with the children in the back - apart from the health implications what if the wind blows the ash into the back and it burns a child? (When I did smoke as a teenager in the car this happened a few times and had a few holes in the seats!). I gave up before mine were born and even if I did smoke I would do it outside. Out of a window isn't effective enough. I worked in a school and you could tell which children's parents smoked by the smell on their clothes/bags and it made me feel really sad. What choice do they have?

Answer 5

As a smoker and having recently visited Scotland (Edinburgh) I was surprised at how pleasant it was in bars etc without smoking. I personally smoked less and hardly noticed any cravings as nobody else around me was indulging, also my clothes did not stink of stale tobacco. I saved money on cigarettes and laundering. I doubt I will give up though, but I'll certainly smoke less. I perversely look forward to the ban.

Answer 6

I think things are going to far. My Dad smoked and I got smacked as a kid--I lived through it. Many kids today grow up thinking they are owed simply because parents cannot discipline them. As for smoking--I am an ex-smoker, and I quit for health reasons, but I have no problem with smokers lighting up in a public place. Continuing to smoke is their choice, just as much as quitting was mine. Last time I looked, this was still a free country.

Answer 7

Smoking around children is wrong! Especially when pregnant. There should be a law against it. And studies have PROVED that second hand smoke IS horrible for the people around you. In fact a recent study says it does much more damage then they thought it did previously. Plus it's disgusting. And makes your teeth yellow. And holes get in your clothes. And everywhere smokers go after smoking a cigarette makes them smell horrible. I don't even want to be around them.

Answer 8

I live in Canada and smoking IS ALREADY banned in public and the fine for violating this law is a good few months of salary. AND for good reason.
As for the parents who smoke around their children, the children HAVE the right to ask their parents not to smoke around them and can even call 911 and the parents WILL be charged if it is proven that they have done so.
And offcourse if you notice such a thing and report it there is a reward.

Answer 9

I am a smoker, but I consider myself to be a considerate smoker, meaning that I don't smoke around anyone who doesn't smoke and even if I sit in the smoking section of a restaurant if there are kids nearby I won't light up. It really pisses me off to see parents smoking with their kids around, and I totally agree with you, those people should be checked into by the CPS (child protective services).

Answer 10

I am a smoke, my mother smoked around me all my life and there are absolutely no probs with me i am physically well. None smokers annoy me, there is absolutely no scientific proof saying that passive smoking causes cancer. Lets turn the tables around then and say those of you's that drink is it all right to drink around a child as drinking is a lot more dangerous than smoking and i'm sure there are a lot of you prudes out there that enjoy a drink with dinner.