Tobacco News and Interesting Information

The city's war with smokers has spilled out of the bars into the cars.

In the latest potential battle, a city councilman plans to propose a ban on puffing a cigarette in a car with a child passenger.

If the measure becomes law, adults smoking in a car with anyone under 18 years old would have to cough up $100, if cited by a police officer.

The ban that Queens Democrat James Gennaro, who chairs the Council's Environmental Protection Committee, plans to introduce next week is intended to protect the health of children who are otherwise defenseless if exposed to smoke in the tight confines of a car.

But opponents argue it steps on the toes of privacy rights and taxes a police department already stretched thin.

"Children who spend one hour in a smoke-filled room are inhaling as many dangerous chemicals as if they had smoked 10 cigarettes," Gennaro said, citing a statistic used by the Mayo Clinic in promoting his bill outside City Hall yesterday. "And what parent would not be incensed to know that their children are inhaling the equivalent of 10 cigarettes?"

The ban is modeled after a similar law passed in Rockland County two months ago, and Gennaro said, would not need state approval.

Under the bill, the person who is smoking -- whether a driver or passenger -- would be issued the ticket.

"I believe to some extent this is an incremental move to try to make it more and more difficult to smoke," said Kerry Gillespie, who heads the smoking cessation program at Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze. "The car was kind of the last bastion for a lot of smokers," he added, pointing to the city's 2003 ban on smoking in public places.

Gennaro's measure was disparaged by North Shore Democratic Councilman Michael McMahon.

"In the Council we just have people trying to come up with bans of things to kind of promote their own name recognition, if you will, and I think it's getting a little carried away," McMahon said. "I think when you're in your own car, that's a very private space, like when you're in your home."

McMahon acknowledged he has grown to appreciate the city's smoking ban, which he opposed in a Council vote, but said Gennaro's proposal steps on the toes of privacy rights and is unlikely to be enforced.

"You're not allowed to use a cell phone in your car, but that's not being enforced," he noted.

Gennaro responded to anticipated privacy arguments by saying, "people's right to privacy doesn't extend to force-feeding their kids cigarettes within the confines of the car."

The Island's two GOP councilmen pledged to support the bill.

"When you're in the car with your window rolled up and you're smoking with your child in the car, he or she is smoking too. And he or she really has no choice in the matter," South Shore Councilman Vincent Ignizio said.

James Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn) also said he would sign onto the bill.

Still, Oddo acknowledged enforcement could be difficult.

"When you have a precinct the size of the 122 and you already are stretched too thinly, I'm not sure this ranks high on your list, but that doesn't mean there isn't value in passing it," Oddo said.

Even if the bill wins Council approval, its fate at the hands of Mayor Michael Bloomberg is questionable.

When asked about the proposal yesterday, the mayor acknowledged the harmful effects of secondhand smoke, but then said, "Whether or not the government should have legislation is a separate issue. It does seem to me that someday, I've always thought somebody is going to sue. Some kid is going to sue their parents."