General legal information furnished as a service of Fort Lauderdale / West Palm Beach family law attorney Janet Langjahr
New York City is contemplating banning smoking in a car in which there are minor children.
If it passes, New York won’t be the first place with such a ban. Similar bans already exist in Arkansas, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, Bangor, Me., and Rockland County, N.Y.
Transgressions would subject the violator to potentially hefty fines.
But that may not be the worst penalty.
In some states, family court judges may and have considered “smoker status” as a factor in child custody determinations. See my previous post, Smoking Cigarettes Has Gotten Terribly Costly: You Just May Lose Custody of Your Child.
And certain states have banned smoking in homes with foster children. Presumably, infractions could result in foster parents being dropped from the fostering program and their foster children being removed from their home.
Read more in this New York Times article: A Call to Ban Smoking in Cars (With Children).
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