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Mom Banned from Smoking Near Kid
To most of us, it’s common sense. But it took a court to tell Rachael Hill she couldn’t smoke around her kid. And an appeals court just upheld their ruling.
Hill only has visitation rights to see her daughter. Victoria Anderson lives with her paternal great-grandparents, while her divorced parents visit. It was great-grandma who complained that the girl returned from visits reeking of cigarette smoke. She won the right to keep Victoria smoke free late last year.
So mom appealed – on her right to smoke.
And an Ohio appeals court has decided her right to smoke is superseded by her kid’s right to breathe.
And that applies even though Victoria has no condition at the moment from her mom’s smoking – the point, the court has affirmed, is to prevent her from developing a condition from exposure to secondhand smoke.
As a non-smoker raised in a smoking household, I didn’t have that right. I now suffer from asthma, exacerbated by cold weather (which, considering I live in New York State, is a fairly frequent phenomena) but linked back to life with a smoker during the years when my lungs were forming.
Studies have since shown links between secondhand smoke and heart conditions in toddlers, nicotine dependence in kids and harm to their intellectual abilities. That doesn’t even touch on the respiratory risks or the big one – cancer. So why the fight on Hill’s part? She knows she’s hurting her kid, right?
Hill says this isn’t about smoking at all. She’s willing to step outside when her kid is in her home. But she doesn’t want the courts inside her house, she says – she thinks it’s an intrusion.
An intrusion it might be, but in custody situations a court is involved. They have jurisdiction over other health hazards presented to kids – a lack of heat and running water, for example. Is smoking any different?
Image: Valentin Ottone via flickr
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8 Comments
marbee commented on Nov 12 09 at 12:27 amThis act by these courts should be criminal, and these people should be in jail. Parents who smoke have been lovingly raising their children for centuries with no harm done. When will we say enough is enough!
Rebecca commented on Nov 12 09 at 12:28 amIt is amazing the the anti-smokers in Australia will use a court ruling from Ohio to further their cause. Are you people desperate? Do you really think a lack of heat and running water is comparable? Are you aware of the millions that tobacco control and Big Pharma spends to make you feel that an injustice has been done? Please wake up and follow the money provided by the makers of nicotine cessation products.
marbee commented on Nov 12 09 at 12:29 amIf the paranoid threat from smoke were real we certainly wouldn’t have any firefighters, or meat-smokers, or wood heater manufacturers, or bar-b-que eateries, or …. and the list goes on! Get real people! How can anyone believe this second hand smoke propoganda? Those creating it could convince you the world is once again flat. How on earth did people survive to this point when they had to use fire to live! I hope this woman sues the pants off these idiots!
TMC commented on Nov 13 09 at 1:58 pmHow is the smoke from wood heating and meat smokers even equivalent to cigarette smoke? The chemicals that are given off by cigarettes aren’t even present in burning wood or smoking meat. And it has been proven that constant exposure to wood smoke is not even good for your lungs either but there weren’t the same options then as we have now. Why would you even take a chance when your child’s life and health are at stake? Just step away from your child when you need to ingest crazy amounts of chemicals with your nicotine.
Jan commented on Apr 13 10 at 10:37 amI’d give this mother more consideration if she actually had custody of her child, though I personally believe smoking around kids is wrong. It’s up to the grandparents to see that the child is taken care of, and they have the right (on behalf of the child) to request that people not smoke around her. My husband and I do the same for our child, much to the inconvenience of some friends and relatives. My husband grew up in a smoking home and at 37 still has breathing problems that he doesn’t want our daughter to share. It’s just wildly unfortunate that the courts had to be involved; this should have been a family matter. Oh, and we do enjoy occasional campfires and barbeque restaurants – which have nothing to do with second-hand tobacco smoke.
Pctrkts commented on Apr 14 10 at 6:30 pmI am a parent and I smoke and +++SHOCKER+++ I smoked while I was pregnant! Although I cut down from a pack a day to like 3 or 4 in a day. (My doctor told me not to stress about those commercials on TV, he said I would have to smoke 4-5 packs a day every single day to do that kind of harm) Now, I have smoked since the day she was born (did not breastfeed) but I smoke OUTSIDE! I never smoke in the house or in the car when she is with me. The amount of second hand smoke she is exposed to is little to NONE. She is happy, healthy, no health problems, asthma or anything and we have a wonderful parent to child relationship. If this mother smokes outside and not in the house directly exposing her child to the smoke, I say she should be able to smoke.
mystic_eye commented on May 03 10 at 4:44 pmI was diagnosed with asthma and had an inhaler as a teen, when I stopped living with two pack-a-day smokers I stopped needing the inhaler. The Dr’s diagnosis -chronic lung irritation due to allergies, hardly surprising given all the other environmental allergies I have.
This article says she’s “willing” to go outside to smoke, which would seem to indicate that she was smoking in the house, and knowing people who smoke in the house probably the car as well.
mystic_eye commented on May 03 10 at 4:45 pmPctrkts,
Its too bad you chose not to breastfeed, it would have been further protection from any damage caused by smoking during pregnancy or third hand smoke after. As long as you smoke less than 20-40 cigarettes a day (depending on the study) its far safer to smoke and breastfeed than smoke and formula feed.
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