Prohibits smoking in private passenger cars, vans or trucks where minors less than 14 years of age are passengers in such vehicles; penalties for violation

Summary of specific provisions

Section 1. Section 1399-o of the public health law is amended by adding a new subdivision 19.

19.a, Prohibits smoking in a private passenger car, private passenger van or private passenger truck where minors under fourteen years of age are passengers in such vehicle.

19.b Sets forth a rebuttable presumption of smoking for purposes of this subdivision.

Section 2. Subdivision 1 of section 1355-q of the public health law, as amended by chapter 11 of the laws of 2003, is amended to read as follows:

1. Private homes, private residences and private automobiles except as provided in subdivision nineteen of section thirteen hundred ninety-nine-o of this article.

Section 2 of the bill makes article 13-E of the Public Health Law regulation of smoking applicable to automobiles in those instances detailed in the new subdivision 19 of section 1399-o set forth above.

Section 3. Section 1399-v of the public health law, as added by chapter 244 of the laws of 1985, is amended by adding subdivision two.

2. Any person who violates this law shall be liable for a fine of not more than one hundred dollars to be imposed by any enforcement officer.

Section 4. Effective Date of this law shall be on the one hundred twentieth day after it shall have become law.

Justification

The harmful effect secondhand smoke (SHS) can have on people, especially children, has been well documented. The EPA estimates that secondhand smoke causes up to 62,000 deaths each year among nonsmokers in the United States, including 3,000 deaths due to lung cancer alone.

Secondhand tobacco smoke (SHS) is a major preventable contributor to acute and chronic adverse health outcomes that affect children disproportionately. An estimated 300,000 children nationwide develop lower respiratory infections each year as a result of exposure to secondhand smoke, with approximately 15,000 of these children

hospitalized due to their infections. And, exposure to secondhand smoke is a primary cause of asthma.

In 2006, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a report, "The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke," saying that SHS is a serious health hazard that can lead to disease and premature death in children. The report details that even brief exposure to SHS has immediate, adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and that because the bodies of infants and children are still developing; they are especially vulnerable to the poisons in SHS.

That same year, the American Journal of Preventive Medicine reported the results of a Harvard School of Public Health study on SHS in automobiles. The study simulated children's exposure to secondhand smoke in a motor vehicle by measuring carbon dioxide and respirable suspended particles (RSP) under actual driving conditions. The researchers determined that the levels of RSP detected were deemed unsafe, particularly for children. Their conclusion was that private passenger cars are a domestic environment with the potential to yield unsafe levels of SHS contaminants.

Smoking is prohibited in many public places such as airplanes, shopping malls, restaurants, bars, and a whole range of facilities and spaces serving child age populations. The dangers secondhand smoke can pose to a child in an enclosed area like a private passenger vehicle are severe. We Currently provide protections for both children and drivers by mandating the use of car seats and seatbelts in private automobiles. This bill is an extension of those protections by providing children clean air to breathe.

The $100 penalty imposed for violation of this ban is justified by the significant, well documented negative health impact on those children forcibly exposed to SHS in automobiles.

California, Maine, Louisiana, and Arkansas have enacted comparable legislation. In New York State on the local level, Rockland County has already enacted a ban on smoking in cars with children up to the age of 18. At least 15 other states and the District of Columbia have similar legislation pending. At present, on a related front, seven states have enacted legislation prohibiting smoking in cars that axe transporting foster children.

Prior legislative history

New Bill.

Fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after it shall have become law.