Eighty per cent of Manitobans support a ban on smoking in vehicles carrying children, according to a survey for an anti-tobacco group.
The Manitoba Tobacco Reduction Alliance Inc. (MANTRA) released the results of its survey — conducted by Prairie Research Associates — on Thursday.
“We are calling on the provincial government to enact legislation regarding vehicles with children under the age of 18,” Murray Gibson, MANTRA’s executive director, said. “The second thing we would like to do is call on building owners and business operators, anywhere there is a public entranceway, to enforce a five-metre ban away from their doorways.”
Dr. Darcy Johnson, president of the Manitoba Medical Association, also called on the government to protect children from second-hand smoke.
If fewer children are exposed to their parents’ habit, the number of kids who light up themselves will be lower, he said.
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In December, Nova Scotia became the first province to legislate a ban on smoking in vehicles carrying children, after the town of Wolfville passed a municipal bylaw banning it a month earlier.
Private member’s bills aimed at banning smoking in vehicles carrying children have also been introduced in the British Columbia and Ontario legislatures.
Although a ban in Manitoba would reduce the amount of toxins a child is exposed to, some smokers argue that it’s their car and their rules.
“It should be freedom of choice but if you’re smoking in a vehicle with children you should have a window down,” said Dennis McDonell, a smoker who has five children between the ages of eight and 19. “If there isn’t proper ventilation, you shouldn’t smoke around a child.”
A recent University of Waterloo study shows that even with all the windows open, the second-hand smoke still reaches unhealthy levels, said George Wurtak, Winnipeg-based director for the Canadian Cancer Society who was also at Thursday’s press conference.
The survey results also show that around seven in 10 Manitobans support either a fine or a fine paired with licence demerit points to enforce the ban if legislation is passed, Gibson said.
But those numbers don’t have any significance, a smokers’ rights group said. Mychoice.ca, a website-based association funded by Imperial Tobacco of Canada, said the results of these types of surveys can be very skewed.
“You can make the numbers say whatever you want and when the anti-smoking organizations do these surveys, they go the politicians and convince them that the public is on their side,” said Mychoice.ca president, Arminda Mota. “This is government by survey.”
The ban in cars is a stepping stone to ban smoking in homes where children under 18 are living, she added.
MANTRA said Prairie Research Associates randomly surveyed around 400 adults by phone between Jan. 18 and Feb. 4.
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