Germany Considers Ban on Smoking in Cars with Children

On July 7th, according to the German media group RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND), Germany's Health Minister Karl Lauterbach is pushing for a ban that would prohibit smoking and the use of tobacco products, including cigarettes, e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products, and marijuana, in cars carrying children and pregnant women.

According to RND and other media reports, the draft proposal by Lauterbach, after coordination with other ministries, will be presented by him in a cabinet meeting.

Currently in Germany, smoking in cars is not illegal. This plan, drafted by Lauterbach, is part of a proposal to legalize marijuana with the aim of expanding the existing Anti-Smoking Protection Law.

According to the draft cited by RND, the smoking ban implemented in public transportation aims to "protect this vulnerable group from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke.

Due to limited space, smoking inside vehicles has been proven to pose a higher risk. The draft emphasizes that:

According to confirmed research, secondhand smoke can also cause numerous serious illnesses and deaths, such as coronary heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and sudden infant death syndrome.

A ban will be imposed on smoking, e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products, and cannabis, among other products, as several studies have also found a correlation between secondhand smoke and lung cancer, according to Rautbach.

The German government has declared that banning smoking in cars carrying children would be "unconditionally welcomed".

Currently, Australia, France, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and some states in the United States have implemented similar bans. Since 2019, several states in Germany have launched initiatives to prohibit smoking in cars with children, with violators potentially facing fines of up to 3000 euros.

The upper house of the German parliament (known as the Federal Council) has decided to submit a corresponding bill to the lower house (known as the Federal Diet) in March 2022.

According to a report cited by the state of Lower Saxony in Germany, the concentration of smoke in cars could be five times higher than in bar environments.

References:

[1] Germany: Minister plans ban on smoking in cars with children