Editorial: New law is a reminder of adults' duty to safeguard children's health

One would hope that mature adults would care enough about the health of children to avoid behaviors that demonstrably endanger them - such as enshrouding them in a noxious cloud of cigarette smoke in the confines of the family car.

Sadly, hope is not an effective means of modifying behavior, so the state has stepped in with a new law that makes it a misdemeanor violation for adults to smoke in a vehicle in which there are children.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the measure into law last Friday.

One might argue that the new statute is more symbolic than emphatic. It prohibits police from stopping a driver merely on suspicion that tobacco is being smoked around someone under 18 years old and the $100 fine it imposes for a first offense is attention-getting but not imposing.

It will be interesting to see over time just how often the law will need to be enforced.

But it does have value even beyond enabling police to cite any adult they encounter - whether a driver or any passengers - who violates the law. It emphasizes the value society places on the health of children and reinforces the expectation that adults cannot put them in situations that endanger them.

The Centers for Disease Control states categorically at its website that "there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke."

Among the problems it cites for children are more frequent and severe asthma attacks, impaired lung function, middle ear disease and greater risk for sudden infant death syndrome.

Adults in the 21st century are well aware of the toxic risks they assume when they smoke cigarettes and other tobacco products.

If they choose to assume them, they do so with willful disregard for the potential consequences. Children do not have that luxury, and they have a right to expect adults will not envelop them in a poisonous fog.

We're confident that most adults, and certainly most parents, recognize the dangers and would guard children's health even without the threat of legal action.

For those who aren't so conscientious, at least this law may get their attention.