Smoking Ban In Car

(16-11-2011 20:26 )Black Harry J Wrote:  and the best thing they've been able to come up with is chemo-therapy which poisons the body - as I'm sure you know from your own experience.

Chemotherapy gave me an extra 18 months with my brother for which i will always be grateful. [/quote]

i find it crap, if i want to smoke in a car then i will do so !!!

They'll never be able to police it. But if we got off our asses and said something to the powers that be, rather than just whinge in places like this, it might not come into being in any case....!!

Can you see the French allowing something like this, or the smoking ban in public places, to happen...??? Non monsieur!!!!!!

(16-11-2011 20:26 )Black Harry J Wrote:  While I am, of course, sorry to hear about your family members dieing of cancer, that was not my point. Cancer Research and it's predecessers have had over 50 years and who know how many billions of pounds to find a cure for cancer and the best thing they've been able to come up with is chemo-therapy which poisons the body - as I'm sure you know from your own experience. Well come on, how much more are they going to want and for how much longer!!!!

You probably don't realize that cancer is not just one disease but many diseases with different modes of action, all resulting rapid division of the body's OWN cells. But that's the reason it is so difficult to treat; kill the cancer cell, kill the body's normal cells. They need to find the magic bullet that kills the cancer cell only for all the different types of cancer. As it is, cancer is not the automatic death sentence it once was, depending on the type of cancer (deep internal cancers have more time to grow before any symptoms and aggressive cancers will always be the deadliest), most if caught early enough can be treated if people get to the doctors and don't ignore the signs. This is a result of the research.


As regarding the ban in cars, to me it's a human right thing. I don't smoke but was against a ban of smoke in ALL public places. There should have been smoking and non smoking places. All you have now is people hanging out of door ways blowing smoke in your face as you pass, smoke you wouldn't have had other wise.

Absolutely correct in terms of the large number of types of cancer; approximately 200 although breast, lung, prostate and digestive/bowel/ colo-rectal cancers account for about half of all diagnoses. Cancer survival rates have inmproved quite significantly over the last 20 years due to earlier detection and improvements in treatment but it is still a major cause of mortality and morbidity. It isn't an easy disease to cure and it may well be several decades before pharmacological and gene treatments are developed - plenty of medical researchers have spent a lot of time sat on their arse looking at cancerous cells - so it would seem like a good idea to take steps to reduce the incidence of cancer through public health measures such as the ban on smoking in public places. For me, this was always a safe environment for workers issue as well as a question of public health and banning smoking in cars may well seem like a limitation on our personal freedom. However, a generation ago the wearing of seat belts in the front seats of cars was made compulsory and this has saved thousands of lives - the clunk-click public information films with the late Jimmy Saville are classic messages -and the vast majority of us conform with this legal requirement because it is a social norm that will save lives. The use of mobile phones while driving has been shown to be a contributory factor in many road traffic accidents although we do not always observe the law in relation to this. Smoking while driving is likely to detract from a driver's ability to control their car - please do not suggest that smoking improves driving ability because that is patently false - and will have contributed to some road traffic deaths as well as being deleterious to the health of the driver. If people need to smoke while driving then pull over and have a cigarette; it will take a few minutes. It is the role of the medical profession, particularly those working in public health who aim to prevent illness and premature death, to make the case for measures that will save lives. It is a matter for government to take action or not - personally, I think that this will be ignored as no Secretary of State would want to touch this with a barge pole for fear of the backlash in the media and amongst the general public who are not aware of the evidence. Personally, I support the banning of smoking in cars, plain packaging, smoking cessation initiatives and the myriad of interventions we could undertake to further reduce the prevalence of smoking. We've got down to nearly 20% of adults smoking - in the mid-1970s it was nearly half - but there are still around 8 million people, predominantly in poorer households and areas, who are actively damaging their health through smoking tobacco and we need to reduce that number in the years ahead.