Bill to ban smoking in cars with kids heads to governor after House approval

Barring a veto from the governor, people in West Virginia who are caught smoking in cars with children under 16 could soon be subject to misdemeanor fines under a law approved by the House on Thursday.

Senate Bill 378 levies a $25 fine for anyone over 18 who is pulled over for a separate offense but is found to be smoking in the car with children. The bill, in several different forms, has been introduced in both chambers of the Legislature nearly annually since 2014. This is the first year it has ever made it out of a committee, much less through a legislative chamber.

The Senate passed the bill 25-8 in February, and on Thursday, the House adopted the legislation 66-33 with one member absent and not voting. The bill previously passed the House Committee on Finance and the Senate Health Committee.

There was no discussion of the bill during the House’s floor session. Throughout the legislative process, different lawmakers have voiced discontent with the bill, stating concerns about parental rights and freedoms.

The bill, for several years, has been sponsored by Majority Leader Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha. Takubo, who is a pulmonologist, said he repeatedly introduces the bill in honor of a patient of his who had never smoked in her life but who only had half her lung function because of exposure to secondhand smoke in the car when she was a child.

On Thursday, following the House’s passage of the bill, Takubo said he was “ecstatic” to see his work pay off as the bill is on its way to becoming law.

“I think that we made a big move forward for children that have had to suffer this and hopefully it can bring light and awareness for parents to keep them from doing this to their children,” Takubo said.

SB 378 will now go to the governor’s desk, where he can either sign the bill, veto it or let it become law without a signature.