I guess for me I look at it this way; we already have many law on the books to keep us from doing stupid things. And for many years we have known that 2nd hand smoke was bad; and is even worse for lungs that are still growing. But I know of people that still smoke in the car with kids around; heck even the OP admitted to it.
As for the fried food example; the flaw there lies in the fact that cigarette smoke is bad no matter what, but fried food does have nutritional value, and in moderation can even be part of a healthy diet. ("Timmy, if you eat your veggies tonight I will make french fries for lunch tomorrow.")
As was mentioned the big issue here is awareness. What better way to increase awareness than to make it illegal? And what better way to give the 9 year old a way to bring it up to his parents. "Hey dad, I didn't think you were allowed to smoke in the car- the policeman told me so" comes across much better than "Dad- in health class they said you shouldn't be smoking around me."
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