There are 11 states in the US that don’t let people smoke in the car with a child, and Virginia is thinking about becoming the next one.
West Virginia wants to make it illegal to smoke in cars with kids. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say that West Virginia has the most adult smokers of any state in the country.
Fines would be given to people in West Virginia who were found smoking in a car with a child or with a lit tobacco product. The Senate passed the bill. “Children” are people who are 16 years or younger. This bill passed the Senate with a vote of 25 to 8. It will now go to the House of Delegates.
Tom Takubo, who used to be a doctor and is now a politician, promised to try to make it illegal to smoke in cars with kids because of a patient of his. Even though the patient and her siblings did not smoke, being in the car with their dad while he smoked caused the patient to lose half of her lung. Takubo said that the patient’s father smoked, so “she had to climb down to the bottom of the car and put her head under the seat.”
If someone breaks the law, they will be charged with a crime and given a $25 fine at most. However, the bill says that the offense must be a secondary offense and not the reason the person was pulled over in the first place.
The bill is unfair, according to Senator Mike Azinger, who spoke out against it. “The reasons in favor of the bill are mostly emotional…It is against the law for parents to make decisions about their kids while they are in their car. The state is going in a direction it shouldn’t go.
