Editorial: Smokers should have rights in confines of own vehicle

By: Editorial | Opelika Auburn News
Published: May 16, 2008

Smoking has been banned in most public places. Good. It should be.

The argument that it is necessary to protect potential victims of second-hand smoke. But the fight against smoking is about to go too far. The next target appears to be inside people’s own automobiles. A number of hospitals in the state have banned smoking inside people’s vehicles while on hospital grounds in an effort to zap any threat of smoke on the property.

The idea points toward the right cause — better health. But banning smoking inside personal vehicles is going a bit over the edge.

“If they have their door open or smoke is seen coming out of a window, we approach and remind them of the smoking ban,” said Renee LeMaire, director of marketing and public relations at Mizell Memorial Hospital in Opp, where smoking is banned inside vehicles.

Smoking bans are legal in Alabama. As a hospital’s property is private, it reserves the right to make these demands. However, there are no such prohibitions at East Alabama Medical Center.
It’s interesting that some pollutants, and yes, smoke is a pollutant, are banned while others go unnoticed. Smoking inside vehicles is prohibited, but it’s perfectly fine to leave your vehicle running and emit toxic pollutants into the air. Go figure. Is it OK to breathe carbon monoxide?

We understand the risks of secondhand smoke, and that’s one big reason why we support the ban of smoking in most public places. But another person of age can choose, or choose not, to get inside a car that belongs to a smoker. That’s their prerogative.

Banning smoking inside of personal vehicles brings the whole issue to a point where we are beginning to infringe upon personal freedoms. What’s next? Will state health officials begin to ban smoking in one’s home? Smoking is a personal choice and should remain unrestricted so long as it does not infringe upon the health or air quality of others, especially children.

If minors are in the vehicle, we don’t recommend lighting up regardless of whose property you are on. That should be a reasonable compromise. But banning individual freedoms inside the confines of a vehicle is beginning to push the line of what’s fair.