State Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Williamsport, isn’t wrong for wanting to stop people from smoking when children under the age of 12 are in a car.

No study has found that cigarette smoke or e-cigarette vapor are good for anyone, much less young children. But there is a line between actions being unhealthy and actions being illegal that Yaw’s proposal ignores – to its detriment.

To be fair, we haven’t seen legislative language yet, simply a co-sponsorship memorandum. But we have a hard time believing that Yaw’s proposal can be enforced at all.

We don’t have enough police officers in rural areas to respond to crimes or enforce every traffic infraction a police officer sees, much less to pull over every person an officer sees smoking in a car with a child. How many times do officers decide not to pull someone over for a seat belt violation simply to avoid the paperwork and hassle, or because they have more important matters to attend to?

Logically, there is another problem with Yaw’s proposal. The next logical step for Yaw is likely banning smoking in a home with children present. From a health perspective, is it more dangerous to a child’s health to spend a short period of time in a car with someone who smokes or hours on end in a house with someone who smokes?

There are a lot of behaviors that are unhealthy, but not illegal. Pennsylvania state government profits from many of those behaviors, including smoking, gambling and alcohol. If our vices are going to be legal, then the key to those vices is education. Cutting down the rate of smoking in confined spaces around children is a laudable goal. But Yaw’s proposal won’t accomplish that goal.

Educating parents and caregivers is the best way to clean up the air children breathe. Better education of youth so they don’t begin smoking in the first place is even better yet.