The Coast | News, events, restaurants, concerts and Burger Week for Halifax, Nova Scotia
Home of the Best of Halifax Reader's Choice Awards, the award-winning independent newspaper covers the Halifax news, politics, events, concerts, movies, restaurants, and nightlife scene.
To the 2 parents in the wal-mart parking lot the other day..(and other parents who do this aswell)
IT IS NOT OK to smoke in your car with your children …..You sat in your car …rolled the windows half way down and BOTH lit up….and sat in your car smoking…………….
—feel sorry for the kids…
This article appears in Jun 11-17, 2009.
40 Comments
Be the first to know about breaking news, articles, and updates.
That’s disgusting. Not surprising they were at wally world though.
You could have easily either called the cops or reported them to child protective services because of secondhand smoke. It’s not a joke, that’s a serious crime in most places.
Man i am not surprised i see this happen often 🙁
I’m pretty sure that is illegal in the HRM.
It may be but the windows were open. And the difference between smoking in a car and your home is?
I don’t think it’s illegal, not to mention too, the windows were rolled down. Sure, it’s not right to smoke with your kids in the car, but it’s the parent’s choice to do that. I’d have more issue with it if the windows were rolled up, besides, who are you to judge if the parents are that terrible if they expose their kids to secondhand smoke? Those kids could be the most well adjusted kids you’ve ever met. We need to stop treating people that smoke like they’re the worst people on the planet. First, it’s completely legal, regardless if we keep pushing the smokers to the periphery of society. Secondly, it’s not anyone’s place to dictate what should and should not be done with children under the care of their parents (as long as those actions are legal). Want to make it illegal to expose your kids to secondhand smoke? Then you’d better think about the consequences of that action, especially considering that children are exposed to far worse than 60 seconds of secondhand smoke. Stuff like car exhaust while sitting in traffic, or being exposed to carcinogenic cleaners in your home/school. While I don’t condone the actions; I think there may be far worse worse things out there.
I’m with Dr. Fever in most of what he said but you could have reported it. It’s illegal to smoke in a car with children 16 and under. It was a law just passed last year.
Dr. Fever: in this case, your assertions about these actions being “completely legal” would be more resonant if we had a government that was the least bit pro-active in forming laws to protect individuals from this type of harm.
At least they didn’t give the kids a smoke of their own .
Alright Guyute, then we should make car exhaust illegal, if you want to be socially responsible. Children (and adults too) inhale more carcinogens and cause more damage to their lungs while sitting in 30 minutes of traffic in a vehicle than inhaling 5 minutes of secondhand smoke. All I’m saying is that it’s more socially acceptable to poison yourself and your kids with carbon monoxide/dioxide than cigarette smoke. Think about that.
The law was passed on April 1, 2008. It is illegal in Nova Scotia to smoke in a car with a minor (19 and under) present or else you can face a fine of up to $394.50 for the first offense.
Heil Hitler!
Wow – first a bitch about kids in a car w/o seatbelts now this! What’s next, drunk drivers with kids? When I have kids I’m gonna call the cops when creepy strangers stare at them while they’re in the car.
Foolish law made by foolish people. I don’t smoke cigarettes but also don’t hang people out to dry for smoking; its their lungs. Plus, they pay for the car, gas and insurance – if they want to light up a quick puff and hang their hand out the windows, thats their business.
Such a neo-McCarthy type of society we live in now. People don’t do anything if they see others being beaten up but a couple of parents smoking in their car is somehow worse than the Holocaust.
Fever, I wasn’t shitting on you; I just laugh at the hypocrisy of the Gov’t passing these laws NOW. I am not debating the harmful effects of one emission vs. another; however, one cannot question the harmfulness of the cigaretter smoke in an enclosed space such as a vehicle.
For those who mock the law, GFY. Most smokers usually don’t give anybody consideration unless they are forced to, least of all a child. My mom, and most smokers I know, would smoke while asleep if they could get a strap to hold the butt.
I agree, Guyute, and my apologies for being so abrasive about it; I’m just frustrated that everyone (i.e.: society in general) flips out on something that at this point in time is perfectly legal, as long as it’s on the periphery. The biggest hypocrisy is the Government that makes a product all but invisible and taxes the shit out of it, claiming that said taxes go to health care (bullshit).
I’m pretty sure the only place this is illegal is in Wolfville.
Wolfville also has anti-idling laws too don’t they? There’s a town trying to keep their air clean.
I was in Wolfvegas a couple weeks ago, Miles, and you can even SMELL the difference. I brought NGF with me and even he commented on the air quality and I don’t think he’s ever been there (or has been there very briefly).
Their air quality is excellent, I gotta say. Always was, and is one of the main reasons I miss livin’ there 🙁
I read in the paper that property taxes have doubled since the asshole of a mayor (Mr Ban Everything) took over.
To Bro Tim and DR Fever. Yes it is legal. Yes it is their right. NO THEIR KIDS DID NOT ASK FOR LUNG CANCER!!
Regardless of whether it’s legal or not, and regardless of whatever other toxins children are exposed to on a daily basis, such as car exhaust fumes, smoking inside a car which contains children is completely selfish and ignorant. If a parent WILLFULLY exposes their child to poisons like second-hand cigarette smoke it doesn’t say very good things about their parenting skills! If someone’s selfishness is so extreme that they can’t even apply a basic level of compassion and concern to their OWN children and wait until they’re out of the car and away from their kids to light up; if they still want to put themselves first to that extent, then they probably aren’t very good parents to begin with and SHOULD have the cops called on their asses.
Remember that next time you go out and get drunk or high.
Maybe the kids were puffing away themselves. I saw something recently that blew me away, driving on the Circ. I pull alongside a car in the next lane, mom is driving with a cig in her hand on the wheel. Her young daughter, who I can barely see in the passenger seat either because she is too small or is slouched down in the seat, has a cig of her own in her hand and took a drag while I passed! Hard to get a fix on age but I’d be shocked if this girl was more than 12 from my quick look while moving alongside. I could not believe it. That was uncommon but not unheard of in older generations, but today it astounds me.
Just wanted to point out that chemotherapy, while an effective, life-saving treatment for some forms of cancer, is a TORTUROUS thing to endure, even when it works.
It’s bad enough to see an adult suffering through chemo, but far worse to see children enduring it, and worse, not understanding why. Why any parent would voluntarily expose their children to any avoidable cancer risk, and subsequent cancer treatment, is beyond me. AND KIDS DO GET CANCERS CAUSED BY SECOND HAND SMOKE.
Yes, I know things were “different” 20-30 years ago when “everybody” smoked—many of us did grow up with families who smoked. But with all that we know NOW about the dangers of cigarettes, and the evil tactics of the cigarette industry, people who smoke around children TODAY are nothing less than idiots.
There is simply no justifiable reason to smoke around children, no matter how much pleasure it gives you. And I see nothing wrong with pointing this out to stupid people who have yet to understand that what they’re doing isn’t “normal” or “OK.”
Adults can do whatever they want to themselves, but they have no right to inflict their moronic habits on children. If they don’t understand this simple fact, they need to be told again, and again and again until they comply. And I don’t particularly care how they “feel” about it.
Oh yeah, and for those who escape cancer in their younger years, keep in mind that it’s not fun to have a parent die just as they are hitting their peak achievement years, and their kids are just finishing school. Certain lung cancers hit at precisely that decade, and they kill faster than you might imagine.
And don’t even get me started on the grotesque path that oral cancers take before they kill. There are reasons you rarely “see” the people with those cancers—oral cancers are hideously disfiguring. A person may live with the disease for years, but may become a recluse as increasing parts of his mouth and face are cut away (“hacked away” as a surgeon told me). This is the less-talked about, but more horrifying, consequence of tobacco use.
Perhaps the local alternative press could do a hard-hitting exposé on this industry—what a great opportunity for a hip, “socially-conscious” paper to stand up to an evil, exploitive corporation. Oh, wait . . .
Thankfully, there is always a chair at the chemo clinic available for anyone, child or adult, who needs it. The nurses and doctors there are great people, but really, I’d prefer to meet them under different circumstances.
“Remember that when you go out and get drunk or high”- Bro Tim
Please enlighten all of us as to what that has to do with the debate?! When I get drunk I do not drive around with kids in the car. That would be the only conceivable case where the two could be remotely comparable.
A part of me is very amused by this ever ending smoking debate. After ten years of relentless anti-smoking campaigns we have a population that is generally adverse to the use of tobacco in any circumstance. However, the debate seems to no longer really be about tobacco but rather the moral condemnation of certain segments of our society. And while people continue to attack the morals and behavior of others our governments continue to reap the fiscal rewards of an additive substance, without any transparency as to how these revenues are actually allocated. I for one would much rather see the government finally just step up to the plate and practice what they preach and just make tobacco illegal. If they are unwilling to take this natural step then please stop implementing legislation and regulations that are rooted more in emotion and moral condemnation than any actual concern for the public.
Actually, as much as I hate smoking, I don’t think that it should be illegal—not a fan of prohibiton and the criminal control that inevitably follows.
I just think that smoking if smoking is a “choice”, as smokers claim it is, then they can choose to keep it to themselves, and refrain when asked politely / told firmly to.
Like nosepicking, farting, masturbation, etc. do it, and by all means enjoy yourself, but don’t do it where you bother/harm others and don’t try to insist that everyone should “enjoy” your habits with you.
And smokers should stop crying “persecution” just because they have been asked to stop acting gross and stupid in public.
I wonder how many of these same bitchers get stoned with their cat or dog and even give them a hoot or shotgun exhale. Then again, I met someone who’d bitch about aspartame while swigging a beer. Then another who would talk about how its wrong to smoke around people while feeding beer or whiskey to his dog (while thinking it was hilarious).
My dad chainsmoked in the car all through my childhood – fuck, I made it to my mid-50s – with today’s typical overreactions, smoking in the car is equilivant to being a goddamn sex offender.
TTFN’s right. While smoking around kids is stupid, 20 years (even 10!) no one bitched about this shit. NO ONE.
Now it’s all “OMG CALL TEH COPZ ON DEM!”
Jesus christ. Get a grip.
Thanks, PK. The logic of the situation is that no one heard of second-hand smoke back then – now we are HYPERFUCKINGAWAREOFEVERYFUCKINGGODDAMNTHINGTHATCOULDGOWRONG!!!! – SOMETHING’S GONNA KILL YA, PEOPLE!! I think I was channelling George Carlin for a moment. Or Sam Kinison.
Hey Bobby, do you think the kids ask to inhale to carcinogens contained in the air fresheners that their parents spray to make their room smell nice? Do you think they ask to sit in traffic and inhale car exhaust for hours on end? I don’t condone the behaviour, by any means, but there is a significant hypocrisy in the assumption that they’re terrible parents because they smoke, with the windows down, in front of their children. I’d bet if those kids have any sort of respiratory issue, it’s due to them sitting in front of a TV too much, not because they’re exposed to secondhand smoke.
I wasn’t asked to be born, but here I am. Maybe I should sue my parents for bringing me into this awful dangerous world.
I could just see what some people’s fathers grandfather’s and great-grandfathers would have to say. You know the ones. The one’s whose only luxury they had in the trenches were smokes.
my parents smoked in the car, we didn’t wear seatbelts or helmets and we drank tang me okay now
OMG I just ran out of bubble wrap, can anybody help me before the kid falls and scrapes his knees. And the wind from the oil refinery smelled great in the good ol’ days.
Do they still sell Tang? Please say its available somewhere!
It’s actually all of Nova Scotia that this behavior is illegal…it’s an amendment of the “Smoke Free Places” Act.
http://www.gov.ns.ca/legislature/legc/bill…
I couldn’t find the actual law..but It’s illegal people:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor…
Fuck, thank you Der.