>>In the UK they have either already made, or are about to make, smoking in the car illegal. Now THAT is a bad'n'. Dropping the butt between the legs whilst doing 70, or going to flick it out the window but it sticks to the fingers and ends up back in he car ... somewhere. I can agree with that one.
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>I'm against a law preventing smoking in cars. The reason is that it is not the smoking in the car but the act of disposing (or failure to) of the cigarette butt that is the problem. Isn't littering illegal?

As people do discard their butts out the window, to avoid caking up their handy wee nick-nack box with ash, and to prevent the car's stinking, don't you think that's a factor agin it?

>What about starting fires from the discarded cigarette butt?

As above - with knobs on!

>He owns that vehicle and should be able to smoke in it if he wants to. It is his personal property. There is no reason smoking should prevent him from driving safely. Now smoking in a vehicle with a minor in the car should be illegal because of the enclosed space and a minor cannot refuse to ride in the car necessarily to avoid being subjected to the secondhand smoke. That is a separate issue and that is a health issue where the minor may not be able to protect themselves. Any adult can refuse to ride in a vehicle with someone smoking. Whether or not to smoke in the vehicle should be the owner of the vehicle's call.

You could make the same argument about speaking on mobies! It's a public safety issue. You're the stats-wallah; I'd wager that as many, or more, accidents are caused by my illustrations above, as by yattering.

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>These laws really concern me. Government is impeding too much into the individual's personal domain. It is littering, dangerous, or reckless driving that is the problem by idiots. That includes putting on makeup while driving, reading while driving, littering (lets be honest - a lot more fast food trash or beer bottles/cans goes out the window and no one is making it illegal to have fast food in the car) et al.

One that's just REALLY wound me up today! I took my kids to a temp. skating rink. It's such a rare occurence here (only annually the local civic centre has a "Holiday on Ice" show and freezes the audiatorium) that one naturally wnats to video the kids doing it. A steward came up and barred my viewfinder and admonished me that it's not allowed - child protection and all that. Now I knew that for several year's that's been the case at swimming pools (you can't even record your kid's private birthday party session) but maybe that's understandable - he kids being near naked and all. But wrapped up and weaving in amongst adults, fully clothed!!! He said that I'd need to get the permission of every parent in the rink in order to film. Madre de Dios!