I’ve been warning for a couple of years now that it’s only a matter of time before anti-smoking zealots start making the case that parents shouldn’t be permitted to smoke around children. In fact, I cornered a guy from Smoke Free Maryland on the topic a few weeks ago in a debate at UMBC. It’s pretty simple. If secondhand smoke is the public health threat proponents of smoking bans say it is, why shouldn’t we ban parents from smoking around children? If smoking is that dangerous, and you’re willing to use government to allegedly protect bartenders, waiters, and waitresses from said danger, why wouldn’t you do the same to protect the children of smokers?

The guy didn’t bite, in part I think because he understood how absurd that position sounds to the average person. But it’s certainly a reasonable, logical application of his position.

Many of the most rabid of anti-smoking activists have in fact thrown caution to the wind, and begun to embrace the position. Last January, for example, I debated Alfred Munzer, a past president of the American Lung Association on NPR on smoking bans. The discussion shifted to family law, and the position some tobacco activists take that smokers should be forbidden from adopting children. I asked the guy point blank if a kid would be better off in an orphanage than in a loving home where one parent happens to smoke. He flashed a slightly creepy smile, and answered, “A loving home is a non-smoking home.”

Over at Hit & Run, Jacob Sullum points out that the man behind the particularly aggressive smoking ban in Washington State is now publicly calling for a law making it a crime for parents to smoke in front of their children, calling it a form of child abuse. As Sullum notes, given the relatively low risk of disease or illness associated with secondhand smoke, even among the children of smokers, this line of thinking, ridiculous as it sounds, paves the way to all sorts of other public health meddling in how Americans raise their kids. Given that the anti-obesity zealots have openly admitted they’re using the anti-smoking activists’ playbook in their efforts to demonize junk food and soft drinks, the day when the public health crowd calls Twinkies and Pepsi, overexposure to R-rated movies, a lack of exercise, or violent video games forms “child abuse” can’t be too far off.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006 at 11:51 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.