I've just done back-to-back interviews on the subject of smoking in cars with children.
According to the British Lung Foundation, which is campaigning to ban smoking in cars with children, more than 430,000 children aged 11-15 in England are exposed to second-hand smoke in their family cars at least once a week.
Frankly, I shall treat these figures with the same contempt I had for the "estimates" and calculations that suggested 11,000 non-smokers died each year from the effects of passive smoking before the introduction of the smoking ban.
I just don't believe them.
In my opinion smoking in cars with children is inconsiderate but that's no reason to ban it. A 2010 poll of 1,000 smokers found that 84 per cent of adults wouldn't dream of lighting a cigarette in a car if a child was present.
Earlier this year researchers in Ireland observed 2,230 drivers in Dublin and found that just 31 drivers (1.39 per cent) were smoking while driving and only one child was exposed to tobacco smoke.
Dublin is not unlike many towns and cities in Britain and I believe that if the same survey was conducted in the UK we would get a similar result.
Times have changed and the behaviour of most smokers has changed too. Legislation will make little or no difference apart from making it easier to take the "next logical step" towards a total ban on smoking in cars.
This morning I went head-to-head with BLF spokesman Dr John Moore-Gillon. Twice.
It was noticeable that on the second occasion he spent a disproportionate amount of time talking about Forest and our links with the tobacco industry.
I was quite flattered, actually, because he said he'd been following Forest for 30 years. He's been reading our website too.
Of course, this all distracted from the subject of the interview but perhaps that was the intention. When your message is weak try and discredit the opposition with playground comments such as "Who would you believe ...?" etc etc.
Anyway, here's Forest's full response to the BLF:
The smokers’ group Forest has urged the government to reject calls to ban smoking in cars with children.
According to new figures released by the British Lung Foundation, “around 185,000 children between the ages of 11-15 in England are exposed to “potentially toxic concentrations of second-hand smoke in their family car every day or most days”,
Responding to the BLF’s “data analysis”, Simon Clark, director of Forest, said:
“We believe these figures are extremely misleading. They are estimates based on questionable calculations.
“According to surveys, only a very small number of adults still smoke in cars with children present. It’s inconsiderate and most adults recognise that.
“Legislation is disproportionate to the problem. It would be very difficult to enforce and would be a huge waste of police resources.
“Education has to be better than coercion.”
See: Thousands of children 'driven in smoky cars' (BBC News), More than 430,000 children travel in smoke-filled cars every week (Daily Mirror)
That seems to be the extent of the coverage. If I worked for the BLF I'd be disappointed. Perhaps news editors are growing tired of this flim flam.
Update: Someone called Chloe Hamilton (no, I've never heard of her either) has written an article for the Independent (A message to those who smoke in cars with children - there is no excuse for your selfish habit).
She mentions Forest, but not in a good way. You might like to comment.