In parliament, a cross party group called for the Department of Health to carry out a public consultation regarding policy options in order to reduce the harmful effects smoking in private vehicles causes.
A hearing was held by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Smoking and Health in response to the Smoking and Private Vehicles Bill 2010-2011 that was introduced by Alex Cunningham MP, under the Ten Minute Rule to parliament.
The goal of the bill is to make smoking in private vehicles illegal when children are present. Although, the APPG inquiry also looked at the possibility of making it illegal to smoke in all cars, due to the serious harm caused by secondhand smoke.
Six expert witnesses presented evidence at the hearing APPG held on 1st November 2011. Findings are published in the report released today. According to the report, in addition to the public consultation, the Government should carry out a systematic review of the evidence and take into consideration all the legal and ethical issues.
Furthermore, the report states that the government should consider the risk to adult individuals smoking in private vehicles, and the risk to children.
Stephen Williams MP, Chair of the APPG on Smoking and Health explained:
“While welcoming the Department of health’s commitment to launch a marketing campaign to encourage people to make their homes and cars smokefree, having listened to the experts, I believe that this will not be sufficient.
The killer fact for me was that just one cigarette smoked in a car during a typical thirty minute journey with the windows closed leads to levels of secondhand smoke about seven times that of the smokey bars that existed in this country before 2007.
This is clearly intolerable and it’s time to turn the debate on how best to protect children from secondhand smoke.”
Written by Grace Rattue