Smoking

I was driving home from work yesterday and I noticed in the car next to me a mother lighting up a cigarette with her small child in a carseat in the back. If that wasn't bad enough she didn't even crack the window to let some of the smoke out. That to me is just not right. I know a lot of people who smoke and hey that is their perogative, but most of the people I know respect people enough to step outside and smoke or not smoke in someone else's vehicle. A small child has no chance and doesn't no any better that it is really putting them in harms way. I'm not going to go into depth on the hazards of smoking and what harm it can do to your body, most people are aware of this. My concern is for those too small to do anything about it and have no choice in the matter. Here are some facts that really make you wonder why a parent would put a child in this situation.
-Among infants to 18 months of age, secondhand smoke is associated with as many as 300,000 cases of bronchitis and pneumonia each year.
-Secondhand smoke from a parent's cigarette increases a child's chances for middle ear problems, causes coughing and wheezing, and worsens asthma conditions.
-If both parents smoke, a teenager is more than twice as likely to smoke than a young person whose parents are both non-smokers. In households where only one parent smokes, young people are also more likely to start smoking.
-Pregnant women who smoke are more likely to deliver babies whose weights are too low for the babies' good health. If all women quit smoking during pregnancy, about 4,000 new babies would not die each year.