Scholarly paper Scholarship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Scholarly paper - Scholarship Essay Example Whether or not a law prohibiting smoking in cars containing minors could be passed in the US would ultimately depend on the law’s constitutionality under the Commerce Clause of the US constitution. The Commerce Clause allows congress â€Å"to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states† and has long been an issue of political and social debate. The Supreme Court’s current standard for determining whether Congress has exceeded its commerce power can be subjective, making it difficult to predict constitutionality of proposed public health laws. However, the court has shown surprising willingness in recent cases to broaden the power of congress to regulate commerce in order to protect public health. Especially to innocent children confined to auto mobiles and who cannot protect themselves, as such a federal law prohibiting smoking in cars containing minors could be found constitutional. Furthermore, if congress were to refuse to take such a law into consideration, it could be possible for states, themselves, to regulate smoking in cars under the dormant commerce clause. This problem cannot be easily prevented by taking simple actions like opening of the car windows. This is because this action can change the direction of the air flow and as a result the smoke gets blown right back into the face of the child. What requires to be done is a law to be passed that prohibits smoking in motor vehicles. This can place stiff penalties to the offenders with the possibility that the parents can lose custody of their children if found engaging in the act. The level of exposure to secondary smoke by children is about 11% in the United States. This study was carried out among children aged below 6 years. It was also revealed that it was the parents who were the main source of exposure to their children, exposure by parents accounted for 90%. There was a new revelation in the research