LONDON, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- England has banned smoking in cars if there are children present to protect younger people from secondhand smoke.
Drivers could be fined £50 (about $75) if caught breaking the law, which will take effect Oct. 1. Scotland may implement a similar ban.
Ministers of Parliament voted in favor of the regulation 342 to 74.
The British Lung Foundation, which favors the ban, said more than 430,000 children are exposed each week in cars to secondhand smoke, which increases the risk of asthma, meningitis and sudden infant death syndrome.
"Three million children are exposed to secondhand smoke in cars, putting their health at risk," Jane Ellison, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health, said. "We know that many of them feel embarrassed or frightened to ask adults to stop smoking, which is why the regulations are an important step in protecting children from the harms of secondhand smoke."
FOREST (Freedom Organization for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco) said the ban cannot be enforced.
Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body, reduces the overall health of smokers and causes many diseases such as cancer.
Cigarette smoking causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the United States, more than the deaths from HIV, drug and alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries and firearm-related injuries combined, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
