The legislation gives police the power to ticket drivers caught smoking while driving with children, although the exact monetary fine has yet to be determined.
“Children are especially vulnerable to concentrated levels of tobacco smoke in vehicles, and this legislation helps to protect them,” Saskatchewan Health Minister Don McMorris said in a statement.
Other provisions in the bill include prohibiting the sale of small cigars in packages of less than 20, a ban on all outdoor signs advertising tobacco products, and increased restrictions on indoor signs promoting tobacco.
Prohibiting smoking in enclosed common areas of multi-unit dwellings and within three metres of doorways, windows, and air intakes of public buildings such as shopping centres, restaurants, and office buildings also came into force on Oct. 1.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation, Canadian Cancer Society, and Saskatchewan Coalition for Tobacco Reduction have long advocated banning smoking in vehicles with minors.
“This law will go a very long way to making it very clear to everyone that second-hand smoke is so dangerous for your kids that it’s no longer allowed in a confined space like a car,” Donna Pasiechnik, manager of tobacco control and media relations for the Saskatchewan branch of the Canadian Cancer Society, told CBC News.
Research by the Ontario Medical Association indicated that second-hand smoke can reach dangerously high levels in cars for children, who have higher metabolism and respiratory rates than adults. The Canadian Cancer Society has linked second-hand smoke to increased incidents of asthma and ear infections in children, and even sudden infant death syndrome.
Saskatchewan’s private vehicle smoking ban is not without precedent. British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Ontario have already enacted laws banning smoking in vehicles with occupants under 16, and internationally several countries have similar legislation.
The United States was the first country to adopt such a law, with Louisiana and Arkansas introducing bans in 2006. Later similar bans were introduced in California, Maine, and Oregon. Australia soon followed suit.
Other counties to ban smoking in vehicles with minors include South Africa (for passengers under 12 years of age) and the United Arab Emirates. Several countries are considering a ban, including Finland, Ireland, Italy, Israel, Netherlands, Taiwan, and the U.K.
Critics of anti-smoking laws see the bans as government enforcement overstepping its bounds and an invasion of privacy. Questions have also been raised about the practicality and feasibility of enforcing such laws.
