Woman Smoking in Car With Kids - WHY????

I think I've made it obvious here before that I feel that smokers are somewhat inconsiderate.

Yesterday, more proof of this was cast along side me.

On my way into work, while stopped at the lights, I looked aside at the car next to me - a blue Chevy Impala. Lady, early 40's driving. Wearing a woolly hat, and puffing energetically on a cigarette. OK, what she does in her own car is just fine, once she doesn't throw the left overs out or blow smoke in my path.

But it was the two little kids, all wrapped up in their winter gear in the back seat that particularly irked me.

These two elementary-aged kids will smell of nicotine when they get into school. Worse still, they will have inhaled a large amount of mom-of-the-year's cigarette smoke - yea, passive smoking, there are still smokers out there who believe it has no effect. (The EPA seem to think is does pose a problem - ETS (environmental tobacco smoke) is apparently responsible for 3000 deaths annually in US nonsmokers, and has a more drastic effect on kids).

See the evidence is there, yet people just chose to ignore. Is that addiction so severe that parents will put their kids health at risk (bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma)? Are they doing this willingly, or do they not know the facts? Cripey, it's 2008!!! Or perhaps, they just choose to ignore the facts.

See, there is a lot said about women smoking when pregnant. I've seen few or no warnings about strapping your kids into a car and inflicting tobacco smoke onto them. There should be more.

Heck, make it illegal. I'm not aware of any such law here in Michigan, but California, Louisiana and Arkansas have already taken that step - it's a ticket if you get stopped. Granted you need to be stopped for another offense first, but at least they are doing something.

So what did I do? I rolled down my window, made brief eye contact, and she sped off.

Poor kids. I wonder will they smoke?