Ban on smoking in presence of children proposed
Adults should be forbidden from smoking in the presence of children, even in their own homes, according to a proposal launched last week by Open-VLD senator Patrick Vankrunkelsven, who is a doctor. According to the senator, about 116,000 children in Flanders live in households where one or both parents smoke. “I know I’m bringing up a sensitive point,” he said. “But I think it’s the job of the government to protect those children. Smoking in an enclosed space in the presence of children should be outlawed, and there is one reason: because it is mortal.”
“A bridge too far,” says privacy commission
The proposal was welcomed by the Flemish League against Cancer. “Everyone has the right to damage his own health, but not the health of others,” said director Erwin De Clerck. “I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but banning child labour also took a long time. Parents who smoke when the children are around are holding their kids hostage.”
But the League criticised the timing of the measure, while accepting there could be widespread support. Launching such an initiative in the middle of a pre-election period made it unlikely it would pass. “We’ll see how much political courage there is,” De Clerck said.
Vankrunkelsven’s proposal would begin by banning smoking in the car, which he called “pure child abuse”. Rather than sending inspectors into people’s homes, he called for tougher “social control”: “People should have the courage to speak to their neighbours if they see them lighting up with the children in the room,” he suggested. “We have to be able to discuss these things so that people are almost obliged to think about them.”
The Privacy Commission, meanwhile, recognised the difficulty of bringing the law into the living-room. “Smoking in the car can be detected and action taken, for the simple reason that it takes place on the public road. But a ban in living rooms? Then you really are entering into the personal living space of people. That seems to me a bridge too far,” said commission chairman Willem Debeuckelaere.
• Meanwhile a new study shows that one in three children aged 10 has already tasted alcohol – and blamed parents for introducing their own children to drinking. “Parents have to realise that that first glass is not as innocent as it seems,” said Marijs Geirnaert of the association for alcohol and drugs problems VAD. “Even if it’s only a sip, as a parent you’re giving your child the wrong signal. The danger of alcohol must not be underestimated,” she said.
Federal health minister Laurette Onkelinx has announced the introduction next year of a total ban on the sale of alcohol to children under 16. At present, under-16s may not be served alcohol in catering or drinking establishments, but they can buy beer and wine from retail outlets including supermarkets. Stronger drinks are forbidden to anyone under 18 in all cases. The new law will also ban the distribution of free alcohol to under-16s as promotions – a common practice at festivals and concerts.
