Ontario Medical Association: Smoking Should Be Banned in Cars that Carry Children By CASSANDRA SZKLARSKI, Canadian Press TORONTO (CP) - A proposal to ban smoking in Ontario day-cares and in cars that transport children would be impossible to enforce, critics said Thursday as the province's doctors called for more drastic measures to shield youngsters from second-hand smoke. The Ontario Medical Association said children's exposure to smoke must be curtailed, arguing in a report released Thursday that their delicate respiratory systems make them especially susceptible to pulmonary disease and cancer. But the idea immediately raised the ire of some smokers who feared such a policy would tread on individual rights and be impossible to enforce. "Where is the line?" Gord Smith, a 55-year-old father of three adult children, said as he took a cigarette break in downtown Toronto. "Is this the start of a whole series of government interventions in our private lives? We as individuals have to take responsibility." Aside from banning lit cigarettes from day-cares and the family car, the association wants smoking restricted in foster homes and considered as a factor in child custody decisions. It also wants Ontario's drug benefit plan to cover nicotine replacement therapies and more information to be disseminated about the health effects of second-hand smoke. "It is the No. 1 preventable cause of disease and damage to our population and it is something that (causes) disease and damage doctors see morning, afternoon and all night long, every day," said Dr. Ted Boadway, the association's executive director of health policy. The province, however, has its own plan to combat smoking provincewide and a government source told The Canadian Press it will not include measures to force drivers to butt out in their own cars. The province plans to reveal its anti-tobacco strategy in the next few weeks. Several municipalities, including Toronto, Sudbury and Ottawa, already have strict smoking bylaws in place. But Boadway said the government is dismissing a ban on smoking in cars because this is the first time it has been proposed and has never been considered by legislators. "My experience is that today's 'no' is tomorrow's legislation," he said. Boadway said he doesn't think such a law would be difficult to enforce and just having it on the books would influence people's behaviour. "Once people understand the seriousness of the problem, people respond," said Boadway. "People will be responsive to that, just as they were responsive to seat-belt protection." The association's study found that cars were up to 23 times more smoky than smokers' homes and some homes were as bad as bars, Boadway said. One 40-year-old mother of five children suggested the policy would be an insult to her parenting skills. "That's a parent responsibility," said Sue Chiblow, whose children range in age from 10 to 22. "It's just like, what do you feed your kids? You have an obese kid, you have diabetes, it's the same thing. Are they going to start banning potato chips?" Some Ontario childrens' aids societies already restrict smoking in foster homes in Kingston, Ont., and Toronto, the association noted. New Brunswick, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories have all approved anti-smoking laws. British Columbia and Prince Edward Island allow smoking in specially ventilated rooms in restaurants and bars, as does Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia's premier wants smoking rooms eliminated by 2008. © The Canadian Press, 2004 | 
lol
lol
, lol.
)
To become paralyzed by something he loved so much to do. A big strong man in the prime of his life.