Smoking is undoubtedly an unhealthy habit. Second-hand smoke is even more damaging to your health, as the unfiltered tobacco enters your lungs.
Smoking is generally banned indoors, but in a private vehicle, you are free to do what you wish. A German council is hoping to change these rules soon, to protect passengers from the unwanted health risks of smoking.
According to German publication 24auto, the Council of North Rhine-Westphalia in Bremen, Hamburg, has initiated an amendment to paragraphs 1, 2, and 5 of the Federal Non-Smoking Protection Act, which would prevent drivers from smoking in their vehicles in the presence of pregnant women or minors. The ban doesn’t apply to people driving alone.
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The council’s justification for the ban is that passengers aren’t able to voluntarily escape the smoke. Cracking open a window or sunroof isn’t enough either; the only way to get away with it is to have a completely open-top vehicle. If you are caught, fines will range from 500 Euros all the way up to 3,000 Euros (about $550 to $3,300 at today’s rates).
Second-hand smoke kills 166,000 children per year worldwide, and according to the German Cancer Research Center (dkfz), the concentration of smoke in a vehicle is up to five times higher than in the average smoky bar. Dkfz also says that one million minors in Germany are currently exposed to tobacco smoke in cars.
The drafted law will now be passed on to the German Federal Parliament, which will decide whether or not to take up the proposal.
Germany already tried to ban smoking in vehicles in 2019 but was unsuccessful. If successful this time, Germany would join countries such as Great Britain, which banned smoking in vehicles under similar circumstances in 2015.
