Calif. Bill Bans Smoking at All Times in Home Day Cares

Smoking in home day care centers, even after the kids have left, may soon be illegal.

The California Assembly voted in favor of a new bill that targets lingering third-hand smoke. Smoking is already banned in the state's 36,000 daycare homes during operating hours.

But one lawmaker says research shows that off-hour smoking also places children at risk.

"If you have people smoking in a facility like a day care, even if there is no children around at the time smokers are smoking, you are going to accumulate over time substances into the floor and other places, and also chairs, tables, toys," California State Assembly member Dr. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, said. "If they're stored there, that could be harmful to the children."

If the bill passes the Senate and is signed into law by the governor, California would join 12 other states that already ban smoking in home day care centers at all times.

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