June 4, 2008: A foster-care quandary

Originally appeared on my Blew's Clues blog:

Study targets smoking in foster homes, June 4: Anybody who has ever entered a house inhabited by smokers can sympathize with Jackie Sparks, a 16-year-old in North Carolina's foster-care system. The stale smell that soaks clothing, the secondhand smoke that carries dangers, the money wasted on a deadly addiction. Sparks, who has had to live in several smoking homes, wants the state to ban cigarette-wielding adults from being foster parents. And she has enlisted the help of a state lawmaker.

Rep. Tricia Cotham, a Charlotte Democrat, wisely first asked for a state study to determine whether banning smokers from becoming foster parents would exacerbate an already critical shortage of open homes. It seems like the answer obviously will be yes. But it's hard to overlook the harmful effects of forcing children to live inside a nauseating nicotine haze.

Once again, we shouldn't have to legislate good sense. Why can't adults put children first and, at the very least, smoke outside the house -- and certainly not in closed-in cars? And that goes for all parents, not just foster parents, who smoke.