Reader comments
Vehicles may become Utah's next no-smoking venue

The smoker who made such a comment is just turning a blind eye and a deaf ear. As I have seen many a rolled up car window with a child or children secured in the seat as well. talk about child abuse, and such a concentration of second hand smoke. The child has no control over their environment. An since we want to bring up such issues mandatory seat belt use we also need to make the helmet law mandatory for motorcycles as well. Heads and pavement, or other objects ie cars, telephone poles and such just are not very compatible. Head injuries uselly are fatal.

Even though I was diagnosed (as the result of an episode in which I was hospitalized and almost died) with asthma at 18 months old, my father continued to smoke in the vehicle I was riding in. He finally quit smoking in the car when I was 10...but that's only because he quit smoking.

A lot of smokers don't have consideration for others, but rather their behavior is dictated by their addiction. I had someone practically begging me to smoke in my truck...saying he would roll down the window and hang outside. I told him he could sit in the bed of the truck and smoke to his heart's desire. Since it was a cold February night, he opted to wait until he got home.

The CEO of the company I worked for 13 years chose to ignore the smoke-free workplace act and continued to smoke in her office...which I had to sit in for conferences and discussions at least once a day. Out of fear of retribution I finally sent an anonymous letter to the board of directors. The thing is,they knew she smoked in her office, because you could smell it and the boss didn't hide the ashtrays. But because they were confronted with the fact a law was being broken they had to deal with it.


If smokers were capable of making good choices about smoking, so it wouldn't harm others...especially young children who have no choice in being exposed to it, then laws wouldn't have to be made.

And I get tired of smokers complaining they feel picked on...walk a mile in the shoes of someone who has a respiratory disease and then complain.

Smoking in cars is completely my pet peeve. I have asthma as does my 9 month-old daughter. Those who smoke, whether or not they have children in the car, usually vent the smoke out the window. The air intake for my cooler or heater takes that second-hand smoke right into the cab of my vehicle, often triggering a coughing spasm from one or both of us.

I can't explain to each and every person smoking at a stop light what an inconvenience it is to us to go without a fan on a hot or cold day. While the morality police tend to generate unnecessary legislation at times, this is one law I'd completely support since affects not only the health of children of smokers, but *all* children who ride in cars.

I actually agree with this law. Both my parents smoked when they drove and vacations in the car were tortuous hours spent in a smoke-filled, confined space. Children are a captive audience who have little control over their own environment and the dangers inflicted upon them within.

Grow up. I have asthma, am allergic to cigarette smoke, HATE cigarettes smoke, and almost died of pneumonia this year. I still want smokers to have the right to kill themselves with their cancer sticks. We don't need any more "nanny" laws telling us what to do.

It's not the government's job to protect us from ourselves. If people want to ride a motorcycle without a helmet, drive without a seatbelt, not put their kids in a carseat, or smoke when their kids are around, it's THEIR LIFE, and they will pay the consequences.

You may be thinking, what about the innocent victims of 2nd hand smoke...the children? Children are victims of lots of problems, why pick smoking? A few examples of unregulated problems that arguably have a worse effect on children are parent's who constantly argue, sending infants to daycare, and feeding kids sugar. All have lifelong negative consequences...they just aren't as easy to pick out and vilify as smoking.

You've only got a limited number of days on this earth...don't waste them taking away other people's liberty, even if it's their right to hurt themselves with the vice of their choice.

This is a Smoke Screen that is an easy target to show that they do something even if it invades the privacy of one's domain.

There are so many other social and legal ills that are ignored, attacking smokers is a way for all of the fat, the ignorant and the dishonest to feel superior.

It's funny that this article came out today as I just experienced seeing a child strapped in a car seat as the parents puffed away at there habit in the front seat. How can you be a loving responsible parent and smoke around your child. Windows down or up doesn't make a difference to me, your still doing damage to your child's health. Saying that, I think it's sad that there has to be yet another law passed to curb this shocking behavior. What happened to people just being responsible?

I was at the Utah State Fair last week. There we smokers all over the place. We were constantly breathing in 2nd hand smoke. Does anyone know if a law was broken by smokers, smoking at the Utah State Fair? Or are open spaces like that considered legal to smoke in?

Well it is too late to complain about stopping the anti-smoking people. Smokers should have started fighting back against them years ago. They use all their health reports and other things to get the laws they want passed. They don't really care about the children. It is all about control. They want to be able to control other people's lives. You mark my words. before you know it, they are going to pass laws so that they can come into peoples homes to fine them or take away their kids because they are not providing the right kind of food for their kids to eat. Don't believe me. See what they are doing about food in the schools. It always starts somewhere where just about everyone can she the point of it and that it seems to make sense. It all started in airplanes for the cigarettes. Which made sense cause nobody could leave the plane while it was in movement. Then it expanded to all the other places. So now it is starting with food. It is starting small but it will spread out just like it did for cigarettes. It is all about control. They want to control all peoples lifes cause they feel they know what it best for everyone. For those of you who are wondering. No I don't smoke and never have.

to petpeeve: Why don't you try using the "recirculating" button on your car's heating/AC that way you won't get the outside air into your car and you'll be safe from all of us horrible, horrible people.

Its funny that mandatory motorcycle helmets were mentioned in this article because my helmet has saved me several times from cigarette ash in the face. Not that there are any hard feelings, I had no idea that a cigarette tossed from a window could throw hot ash high enough to get in a motorcyclists face, but it always does and I'm thankfull for that face shield when I have it.

In my research and experience I can see the passing of this bill being just one more law on the books that wouldn't get enforced. We have speed limit signs that don't mean what they say because law enforcement doesn't have time to enforce them. They are too busy with more serious crimes. We have too many speed related deaths - Known fact. Let's do something about them. Then we can look into saving children from their parents stupidity.

If smokers don't want to face these types of restrictions they should have learned to police themselves years ago. Not a day goes by that I don't see several cigarette buts tossed out of car windows. If you walk a roadway you will notice that the gutters are full of disgarded cigarette butts. Smokers are the biggest litterbugs on the planet.

I also see people smoking in their cars with kids strapped into the safety seats. Rarely are the windows down.

Liberty and DLG are right on the money. We know how many secondary offenses creep their way into being primary ones.

My son was life-flighted to a level 1 trauma center because of an accident between Page, AZ and Kanab, UT at Easter. To avoid an accident he decided to get onto the shoulder and the softness threw him into a canyon wall at highway speed.

Before buying the motorcycle he took a 3 day training course and bought full leather with titanium shoulder and knee plates. He walked out of the hospital three days later barely bruised. The titanium is scratched, rocks are embedded in his helmet.

THE FOLLOWING IS TONGUE IN CHEEK: Therefore everyone, in any type of vehicle, maybe pedestrians too, should be made to wear helmets and full leather!

I am a smoker, as well as my husband. We both believe that passing this law would be a positive move. We both hate to see people smoking in their cars with children. We have no children, but if we did, this would be a huge no-no. Smoking is a decision that we made, and under no circumstances will we force a child to inhale the poison that we know is killing us. This isn't just for children either, this is for any age. If my husband and I are at work on break, and someone who we know does not smoke comes into our vicinity, we move to a different location. If we are parked, and a car pulls up next to us, we put our cigarettes out. I do no want to be the cause of someone else's health problems. I could never forgive myself. I understand what smoking does to a person's health, and until I quit, may it be soon, I believe that any law that will protect other people from the harmful effects of smoking will be welcomed.

I have a pickup with a pretty basic system. There is no re-circulation button there. Lots of cars are built this way. I have the option of turning off the fan, rolling the window down (often allowing smoke in the car) or sitting in sweltering heat. When we are in our other car with the re-circulating button, I guarantee you it's in use.

I really don't mind others smoking in public actually. It's unfortunate that there are unnecessary laws that give this kind of law the same grouping. If people want to smoke in a bar or in a park, I think that's perfectly their right. I can either choose to be there or not. I choose to go to smoke-free bars like Fats or the Bayou. I think there should be places where anyone can go whether to smoke and socialize or not at all.

In my car, I'm more of a captive audience, and not able to really make the choice whether I want to expose myself to that or not. I don't want to villify smokers, they have a right to do what they want. I just want to be able to choose to *not* breathe second hand smoke.

When I read the report that second-hand smoke was more dangerous than smoking, I started smoking. It's much safer!

How about this idea. Let's enact child endangerment laws and let someone smoke in their car if they want to. Of course, to enact child endangerment laws we would have to take all of the mini buses off of the road or at least force parents to watch the road.

THANK YOU Eric!!! for pointing out the outrageous attitude that a lot of smokers seem to have that pitching a butt is acceptable. Hello folks, it's LITTERING! And it's disgusting and filthy! Do you toss the rest of your garbage out your window, or just drop it on the ground? No? Then WHY is it okay to drop a butt???

But then again, how can we expect anything different from people who already demonstrate that they have absolutely NO consideration for anyone else, not even their own captive children.

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And as far as seatbelt and helmet laws, you bet it's my business whether other people wear them or not! It becomes my business when my insurance rates go up because YOU to be kept alive on life support, or when I have to foot YOUR medical bills totally because you have Medicaid!