The California Senate has approved a measure that would impose $100 fines for smoking while driving with children young enough to have to ride in child-safety seats, the Associated Press reported Aug. 28.

"We all know that secondhand smoke is hazardous," said state Sen. Deborah Ortiz (D-Sacramento). "Children are effectively smoking a pack and a half a day for every hour they are exposed to smoke in a car."

The bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood), was returned to the Assembly for a revote; it was approved in a different form last year.

Currently, California law requires car seats for children under age 6 or weighing under 60 pounds. But new legislation could require children as old as 8 to be in car seats, broadening the impact of the new tobacco bill.