Legislation to ban smoking in cars where children are present has yet to be enacted, almost two years after senators proposed the ban, which has been endorsed by the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland.
The RCPI, the country’s largest postgraduate training body for doctors, has also called for all publicly funded institutions, particularly hospitals and academic campuses, to be made smoke-free.
The call comes in advance of the 10-year anniversary of the workplace smoking ban, introduced on March 29 2004.
Pat Doorley, chair of the RCPI Tobacco Policy Group, said that while Ireland had made “great strides” in saving lives and reducing harm as a result of the workplace ban, more policy measures were needed to achieve a “Tobacco Free” Ireland and prevent serious health problems in the next generation.
“We know that children of smokers exposed to second-hand smoke are at risk of the same health problems as those smoking themselves,” said Dr Dooley. “Indeed research shows that children exposed to second-hand smoke in cars, in the home and in other areas can suffer from tobacco related illnesses for up to 25 years later.”
Consultant oncologist John Crowne, the senator who first proposed a Private Members Bill which includes a smoking ban in cars transporting children, said the legislation was due back before the Seanad in the first week of April, complete with government amendments.
He said it was “a good bill that needed to be passed” but that the timeframe for enactment was in Government hands. However, a similar bill in Britain had got through the House of Lords with minimum delay, he said, and he was hopeful it would go “quickly through the Dáil” once passed by the Seanad.
Source: Catherine Shanahan, Irish Examiner, 24/03/14
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