Health expert calls for political debate on car smoking

Just days after the British Medical Association recommended that smoking in cars should be made illegal, a leading Lancashire health expert has called for a political debate over the issue.

Officially, the professional medical association and trade union for doctors and medical students is calling for an outright ban on all smoking in vehicles across the UK, highlighting research which claims that the levels of toxins in a car can be up to 23 times higher than in a smoky bar.

However, Blackburn’s director of public health, Dominic Harrison, said a partial ban would be more appropriate.

He said: “The evidence around smoking with children in the car, even with the window open, is absolutely overwhelming as that is far too close to be smoking to a child.

“With children or passengers I think the issue is the same as smoking in an enclosed public space.

“I think we should test this with political debate and I would be quite interested to see what the public mood would be.

“I would suggest immediately no smoking in cars with a passenger and certainly not with children and I would make it a civil offence, similar to parking on a double yellow line, not a criminal one initially.”

A regular smoker  looking to sell a car can find the car valuation is often lower.