Beneficial ban

If in the following weeks students feel the ground begin to shake and see a few bricks come loose from campus buildings, they should not be alarmed. Indiana isn’t exactly along the San Andreas Fault. It’s no earthquake. Rather, it’s the adult smokers of Monroe County grumbling about the limits being placed on their right to privacy and the dangers of government limitation. Just ignore it and move on.\nThe Monroe County Board of Health made a proposal to county commissioners last week that would ban smoking in cars carrying children ages 13 and younger. However, primary concern rests on the issues of enforcement and penalties, including the ability of police to effectively ticket the offense. Commissioner Pat Stoffers also expressed concerns about the ban’s effectiveness and if the end might be better served by a second-hand smoke awareness campaign.\nAccording to the American Lung Association, 32 percent of middle school students are exposed to second-hand smoke, increasing the risk of respiratory infections, asthma, bronchitis and cancer, among other complications. The proposed ban in Monroe County is intended to protect a group of individuals dependent on adults for transportation and will hopefully cut back on the risks some children face. A lack of enforcement possibilities is not enough to immediately kill the proposal (and, thankfully, county commissioners have not).\nEnforcement of the ban will no doubt be worked out in Monroe County’s bureaucracy. What is important is not the complete elimination of the problem at hand but its reduction. Speeding tickets do not stop students from cruising down Highway 37 at 80 mph. But after one speeding ticket that costs hundreds of dollars, they’ll certainly slow down. If it takes officers handing out tickets like speeding violations to parents who smoke with their children in the car to control the problem, then so be it.\nMany will argue that a right to privacy is too big a sacrifice to make in order to enforce this ban. The mentality goes “my car, my kids, my cigarettes.” But considering that second-hand smoke has such harmful effects on children, the argument that smokers should be allowed to smoke around their children because it’s their private choice shakes and falls. If the word “knife” is inserted for the word “cigarettes,” the mentality certainly would not justify a parent stabbing their child in the lungs. Cigarettes have the same effect.\nAs for Stoffers’ proposal that there be an education campaign concerning second-hand smoke, few will find good reason to argue. However, in an information age with television and the Internet trumpeting the dangers of second-hand smoke for the entire nation to hear, it is clear that education is not enough. The effects of second-hand smoke are known, even by those who would do their best to ignore them. Action by the Monroe County government is necessary in order to protect its young population. The grumblings of adults who prefer convenience over safety is no reason to skirt that responsibility.