Tobacco smoking is the number one preventable cause of death. It costs billions of dollars in health care, missed days from work due to illnesses associated with smoking, and one of the ways to change this would be to ban public smoking. This would improve public health by minimizing people’s exposure to a major carcinogen.
The economic impact of a smoking ban could be great, but all the more reason to closely consider what our economy produces, and why. Should people avoid seeking a cure for cancer or AIDS because it would have an economic impact? Should people continue to spend trillions of dollars on weapons and the wars because peace would have an economic impact?
The government has implicated price increases and taxes on tobacco as a political step to make the public think if they raise the cost that the smokers will not keep buying them, therefore, eventually they will stop smoking. Ban smoking In public, confine it to private property and stop advertising the deadly drug. That will create a cleaner, healthier environment.
Government should regulate smoking in indoor public places, in areas where children are, i.e. parks, playgrounds. There should also be a ban in the work place. For the nonsmoker it is their right to be able to breathe clean air. They should not be exposed to the dangers just because smokers have a habit. Who would want to have their homes, workplace and clothes smelling like cigarette smoke.
The government should require the posting of warning notices in areas that allow smoking that communicates the public health officials’ conclusions that second hand smoke causes or can cause potentially life threatening illnesses.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health – has determined that environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is “potentially carcinogenic to occupationally exposed workers,” and that “workers should not be involuntarily exposed to tobacco smoke.” NIOSH recommends that “the best method for controlling exposure to ETS is to eliminate tobacco use from the workplace and implement a smoking cessation program.” And that “decreasing involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke in the community, especially in workplaces, is likely to improve respiratory health.”
The California Air Resources Board declared that environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), or second-hand smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant, it is an airborne toxic substance that may cause and/or contribute to death or serious illness,
“The ARB’s action rightfully puts second-hand tobacco smoke in the same category as the most toxic automotive and industrial air pollutants,” OEHHA Director Joan Denton said.
“Californians, especially parents, would not willingly fill their house with motor vehicle exhaust, and they should feel the same way about tobacco smoke.”
For a long time now many people have had different views about smoking in public places. Smokers feel it is their right to smoke where and when they want. On the other hand non-smokers feel smokers violate their rights and endanger their lives. There are still some places in the United States where you can smoke in public. The New York Coalition of Social Smokers believes that restaurants and businesses should be allowed to set their own smoking rules, based on demands of their customers. They believe that the government has gone to far in banning smoking in private places, they feel that it is a legal substance just like alcohol and if people want to use these substances in their homes they have the right and its discrimination.
Smoking causes heart disease, lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, COPD, other serious illnesses, and even death. Cigarette smoking is the number one cause of lung cancer and now more and more non-smokers are being diagnosed with the disease, caused by the second hand smoke they are exposed to in their environment. A recent report released by the Federal Environmental Protection Agency reported that 53,000 non smokers die each year because of this. By putting a smoke free policy into effect, it will send a strong message about protecting our health.
Although some claim that smoking in a public place is their right and should be kept that way, but if you look at it from all views it is a danger to not only humans and animal but to the environment as well. We shouldn’t be exposed to something that is so harmful. Smoking is one of the most deadly habits done today. It is extremely addictive, and not very easily stopped, it affects the greatest number of people in the world today. A complete ban on smoking in public would greatly reduce the chances of illness and create a healthier place to live.
Works Cited
Haughton, Emma. A Right to Smoke? Danbury, CT Grolier Publishing, 1997
Wagner, Gregory MD NIOSH. “Work, Smoking and Health” A NIOSH Scientific Workshop (2002):
California Environmental Protection Agency, Air Resources Board, California Identifies Secondhand
Smoke as a “Toxic Air Contaminant”, www.arb.ca.gov, SACRAMENTO, January 26, 2006 News Release
New York Coalition of Social Smokers. Jonathan Pinard. Smokers Rights, Non-smokers Rights and Private Property Owner’s Right: htpp://www.socialsmokers.org/smokers_non_smokers_property_owners_rights.html
Pirkle, James L. Exposure to Secondhand Smoke Is Widespread. San Diego, CA Greenhaven Press, Inc 1997
Sullum, Jacob. Smoking Should Not be Regulated. San Diego, CA GreenHaven
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