Parents who smoke around children ‘are irresponsible’

HEALTH minister Dr James Reilly has described as “irresponsible” parents who smoke in the presence of children despite knowing it causes cancer and death.

The minister, who hopes to introduce legislation banning smoking in cars where children are passengers as early as next year said: “I don’t think anyone in their right mind could agree that smoking with a child in a car is a sensible, wise, moral or ethical thing to do. You’re exposing them to sidestream smoke which is known to be even more carcinogenic than the smoke you inhale.”

The suggestion to ban smoking in cars where children are passengers was first raised during a Seanad adjournment debate on July 13, when Senator John Crown, a cancer specialist at St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin, described parents smoking in cars as a “form of child abuse”.