Bill targets smoking in cars with children

Utah smokers will have one less place to light up if a measure making its way through the state Legislature wins final approval.

A bill sponsored by Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake, prohibits smoking in vehicles when a child under the age of 5 is present.

Citing the "massive and conclusive scientific evidence" about the dangers of secondhand smoke, McCoy said the bill, SB43, makes sense from both a public health and child welfare perspective.

"Basically, when you think about it, the car is the smallest, most confined space that anyone smokes," he said. "The child is basically a captive, especially when the child is strapped in the car seat."

SB43 easily passed its first legislative hurdle Monday, receiving a unanimous vote by members of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.

The Utah Fraternal Order of Police, whose members would be largely responsible for enforcing the smoking ban, is in support of the bill.

"With the well-known health consequences of cigarette smoking, we think that this bill makes sense," executive director Kelly Atkinson said Monday. "Adults have the right to choose to smoke; children do not."

SB43 would make smoking in cars a secondary infraction, meaning motorists cannot be stopped for smoking alone. If stopped for another reason, however, violators could receive a $45 fine. The law allows for waiver of the fine upon proof of enrolling in a smoking cessation program.

The bill received no opposition in Monday's committee meeting. McCoy said he expects opposition as SB43 moves forward, however, considering last year's debate of a bill that outlawed smoking in Utah's private clubs.

Tobacco opponents won a hard-fought battle on that front, despite arguments from business owners and many lawmakers that banning smoking in private businesses infringes on individual property rights.

McCoy said that argument "is a little less powerful" in this case, because the private club ban involved consenting adults visiting bars and clubs where they knew others may be smoking. Children, particularly younger ones, can't choose not to get in the car with adults who smoke or roll down the window for a little fresh air, he said.

"They can't say, 'Mom or dad or Uncle Joe, I don't want to get in the car while you're smoking,"' McCoy said.