UPDATES IN MICHIGAN FAMILY LAW

Smoking in Car with Children: Pending Legislation

As reported by the Associated Press on November 7, 2005: Rep. John Moolenaar will formally introduce proposed legislation on November 8 that would allow police officers to pull over and issue a civil infraction citation to drivers who are smoking with a person under the age of 18 in the car.

Information on Rep. Moolenaar’s website links to recent studies that show that secondhand smoke causes lung cancer in adult nonsmokers and impairs the respiratory health of children.

According to studies done by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 children under 18 months of age get pneumonia or bronchitis every year from breathing secondhand tobacco smoke. For more information, see Setting the Record Straight: Secondhand Smoke is a Preventable Health Risk on the www.tobacco.org website.

To contact Jeanne Hannah with your questions or to view her Family Law website, click here.

Should Family Courts Restrict Exposure of Children to Second Hand Smoke?

There has been an ongoing discussion in the past week on the Michigan Family Law Section's Listserv about whether family courts have the authority to tell parents that they cannot smoke around their children; whether custody and parent time decisions can be made on the basis of exposure to ETS; and whether court orders that restrict the exposure of children to second hand smoke  -- either from the custodial parent or from a second wife or husband or a boyfriend/girlfriend are lawful.

There is no question that second hand smoke is harmful to children (and others) and that it is especially harmful to children with lung diseases such as asthma.

Lawyers and parents who seek to limit the exposure of children to second hand smoke will find authoritative support in the following: