New Virginia law bans smoking in cars with children under 8

A new law in Virginia will make it illegal for anyone in a car to be smoking if there's a child in the vehicle.

According to the law, anyone carrying or holding any lighted pipe, cigar, or cigarette of any kind or any other lighted smoking equipment or lighting, inhaling, or exhaling smoke from a pipe, cigar, or cigarette of any kind or any other lighted smoking equipment with anyone eight years old or younger will have to pay a $100 fine.

The law is a secondary offense, meaning it can't be the primary reason a police officer pulls someone over.

Tod Burke, a Professor of Criminal Justice at Radford University explained, "We already have in public places no smoking, and that's even in some outdoor areas you have to be within a certain distance. So why subject a child to an enclosed environment where second-hand smoke could affect their health?"

The new law change goes into effect this Friday, July 1.