Courts can stop you from smoking around your children -- or deny you custody because you smoke. In 2006, an Ohio Appeals Court ruled that a trial court can grant custody of a six-year-old to his father because his mother and her fiance consume a pack a day. It was the first time a court denied custody only because of a parent's smoking.
In Columbus, Ohio, one domestic relations judge told a father to stop smoking around his sons, one of whom had asthma and allergies.
In Lake County, Ohio, a Juvenile Court Judge cited extensive evidence of the effects of secondhand smoke, including lung cancer, asthma, heart disease, and substance abuse.
He noted that the US Supreme Court said that smoking is not a fundamental right. Since children cannot protect themselves from their parents' smoking, the courts can step in to protect them. "A man's home is his castle, but no one is allowed to hurt little children - even in his castle."
Or, as Kathleen Dachille, director of the Center for Tobacco regulation at the University of Maryland School of Law put it: "You have no more right to smoke in front of your children than smack them in the face."
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