To protect children: Lauterbach advocates a smoking ban in the car to protect children

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Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (60) wants to ban smoking in vehicles if there are minors or pregnant women on board. “Children and pregnant women need better protection in society,” a Health Ministry spokesperson quoted the minister as saying on Friday. Secondhand smoke can cause “permanent damage” to them. Lauterbach thinks that there should have been a smoking ban in cars “earlier” in the presence of children and pregnant women.

The ban should be enshrined in the law to protect non-smokers, the spokesman said. The implementation of the law change would be made as part of the planned cannabis legalization. The design for the smoking ban is coordinated with the other departments.

The question is whether it will actually be adopted. Because there is already resistance. “I do not believe in bans that are difficult to enforce and whose value is questionable,” said FDP health policy spokesman Andrew Ullmann (60) to the newspapers of the media group Bayern. Such a ban would have no health effect, argued the FDP MP. “If you don’t smoke in the car for 30 minutes, but stay in the apartment all day, neither children nor pregnant women will be helped.”

Hardly controllable

The General German Automobile Club (ADAC) is also sceptical. He questioned the feasibility of such a smoking ban. “We are also critical of a legal regulation because such a ban was not or hardly controllable,” says a spokesperson for editorial network Germany (RND).

But there is support for the smoking ban. For example, from the German Cancer Research Center: it pointed out that according to the latest figures from 2018, about 800,000 minors are exposed to passive smoking in cars.

The German Medical Association also supports the plans. “This ban is long overdue, because passive smoking is bad for your health. This applies in particular to the unborn, children and young people,’ said a spokesman for the RND. “Actually, it should go without saying not to smoke in their presence. If there is a lack of reason and sense of responsibility, the state must intervene.”

Smoking is also prohibited in your own home

The Professional Association of Pediatricians goes even further. “The smoking ban at home is urgently needed,” says a spokesman for the association of “Bild”. “Especially within their own four walls, children suffer the most damage from secondhand smoke.”

The president of the Non-Smoking Action Alliance, Ulrike Helbig, even thinks of a smoking ban if there are only adults in the apartment: “In private households, the ban makes sense – for families, but also for couples.” Members of the action alliance include the German Medical Association and the German Cancer Aid.

Incidentally, Germany would not be the first country in Europe to introduce such a smoking ban. There are already bans in Greece, Finland and Cyprus. Smoking is not allowed there if minors are traveling in the car. Smoking is also prohibited in France as soon as minor children – under the age of 18 – are on board. Otherwise, a fine of 68 euros will follow. In Italy, smoking is also not allowed in the presence of pregnant women. (AFP/jmh)

Source: Blick