Smoke-free vehicles

Maine upstaged Ohio, Kentucky and the rest of the nation on the American Lung Association's 2006 "report cards" for state tobacco control measures. Maine was the only state to rate all A's -- for tobacco prevention funding, smoke-free air, cigarette taxes and youth access. Kentucky got all F's, and Ohio's grades were mixed -- two C's, an F and only one A, after voters in November passed a statewide ban on smoking in public places.

As if to reinforce Maine's top ranking, Bangor's city council on Monday night (Jan. 8) passed a law banning adults from smoking in any motor vehicle, including their own, if children are present. Since then smokers and nonsmokers from around the country have been lobbing incendiary comment at the Bangor Daily News, either decrying this back-woods ordinance which takes effect in 10 days or hailing it as worthy of immediate duplication nationwide.

Bangor council members even made it a "primary" law, which authorizes cops to stop a vehicle for no other reason than seeing a driver or passenger smoking in the presence of a kid, up to 18 years old. I'm not sure what they do if the kid is smoking.

Pediatricians and other medical people testified for the ban. I reckon it's at least as enforceable as primary seat-belt laws, but it does make me wonder if it won't be long before they decide to go beyond vehicles and add homes to the ban. I assume the car ban is based on roads as public rights of way, and considers secondhand smoke a form of child abuse. Have those Maine-iacs gone too far this time, or could this be the next big national push?