Groups seek ban on car smoking in Britain

LONDON, June 17 (UPI) -- A major effort is under way in Britain to get the government to ban cigarette smoking in cars when children are present, a smokers' advocacy group says.

Simon Clark, director of the lobbying group Forest, says his organization fears the move is a stepping stone to banning smoking entirely, regardless of whether children are on board, The Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday.

"It's unnecessarily intrusive," Clark says. "You can't legislate for every aspect of people's behavior."

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health, says her charity is in favor of an outright ban.

"Cars are small tin boxes, with not much air in them," she says. "Smoking just one cigarette, even with the window open, creates a greater concentration of second-hand smoke than a whole evening's smoking in a pub or a bar."

Last week the British Heart Foundation released a study showing that smoking costs the government $8 billion a year, more than twice previous estimates.