You’re not going to get many people who say smoking is good for you.

There’s a general acceptance of the need to ban smoking from public and work places.

Lots of smokers may grumble about having to step outside for a smoke, but the limitation on their individual freedoms is justified as being for the public good.

But using this line of argument, why then shouldn’t society be able to regulate what parents feed their children, if their food intake is causing them to be obese and unhealthy? Shouldn’t it be against the law to let children sit around, playing video games or surfing the Internet? Obesity isn’t the only health concern facing sedentary children. Many kids are developing type 2 diabetes because of their diet and a general lack of exercise.

Should parents be charged for putting them at risk?

These are questions being asked in the wake of Premier Dalton McGuinty’s decision to support measures to ban smoking in cars carrying kids. It’s a change of heart for the premier, who previously opposed any such move as representing a slippery slope to intrusions by the state into the private lives of citizens.

If smoking in private vehicles carrying kids is banned, why not extend the logic and ban smoking in private residences where children reside?  You can bet that some legislator is already working on that, and many well-meaning people may be convinced there’s nothing wrong with that approach.

And indeed, there are already many restrictions that reach into the home. It’s illegal to let children consume alcohol, for instance, or to smoke. Government agencies, such as the Children’s Aid Society, do have a right to get involved in the home if child-neglect issues are present. Perhaps this is the way to handle smoking around kids.

Still, even though there may be a rationale to extend smoking restrictions into private residences, to do so would be going too far. Not so with private vehicles. Space is so tight a smoker might as well be blowing smoke rings into the faces of passengers.

Let’s hope our legislators know the difference between protection and intrusion. But let’s also be clear on this. No one should be smoking anywhere near children. Only the most oblivious and/or irresponsible would do so.

That’s the thing with laws. Usually, they only come about after an abject failure to demonstrate the most basic restraints or common sense.