Tuesday
Oct192021
Smoking in cars in Northern Ireland - Department of Health replies
Tuesday, October 19, 2021 at 14:46 Further to last week’s post about smoking in cars in Northern Ireland, I wrote to health minister Robin Swann to clarify his proposed plan.
If you remember (Smoking in cars in Northern Ireland - why did the BBC change its story & headline?) there was some confusion as to whether the plan was to ban smoking in cars carrying children - as in the rest of the UK - or go further and include all cars with more than one person, which is radically different.
On Monday I received the following reply which specifies that a child must be present for an offence to be committed.
Smoking therefore will continue to be allowed in cars when only adults are present.
Good to have that cleared up.
Reader Comments (2)
Well, I suppose it's a relief of sorts to know that the new legislation is no sillier or impractical to police than elsewhere in the British Isles!
I still maintain that even the best organised UK police force would be unable (and in most cases unwilling) to enforce it. In Northern Ireland the much higher priorities of an already overstretched force are blindingly obvious.
The idea that this early success encourages moves towards complete bans on smoking in private cars - and private property in general - is more disturbing.
It is good that the Northern Ireland car smoking ban proposal only covers vehicles with children nut even that is extreme overreach.
The second hand smoke/passive smoking fear campaigns are based upon a faulty foundation where advocacy replaced sound science. Exaggeration and bias combined with an insatiable antismoking agenda lead to these never-ending campaigns for incremental prohibition.
See "We Used Terrible Science to Justify Smoking Bans" https://slate.com/technology/2017/02/secondhand-smoke-isnt-as-bad-as-we-thought.html for an overview of these band standing tobacco control tactics.