It is my personal opinion that each person, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, or status in life must support the smoking ban. This is because, contrary to the smoking populations opinion, they are not invulnerable to the effects of smoking. They are directly affected by the poisonous carbon monoxide they are exhaling into the air. The people around them, who have to breath the very same air that they are polluting inhale the poisonous toxins that are released into the air whether we want to or not. The smoking ban is not a matter of just designating a public or private area where one can indulge in their slow death activity.
The smoking ban is a matter of saving the general non smoking public from those who do not care about the illnesses that their activities thrust upon the innocent bystanders. It is also a ruling that will help save the smokers from themselves. I am an ardent supporter of the smoking ban due to the way smoking has directly affected the lives of the people around me. I myself to not smoke. But I come from a family where most of the men smoke like chimneys on a severely cold winter day. I do my best to dissuade them from smoking, at least in my presence, but each of them say they have a valid, albeit misguided reason for continuing to smoke.
I support the smoking ban because of the way their health was ruined by smoking. I am mentioning only a few of my personal experiences with regards to why smoking should be banned below. My father smoked heavily in his youth. Most specially after meals. He would sit in the family room with us and light his stick. Every time the family would argue about it, he would say that smoking helps him digest his food better, and helps control his saliva production. Nobody could convince him of the ill effects of smoking on his health and on the health of the people around him.
We tried to explain to him about how he could chew gum after eating, or even drink coffee if he only needed a caffeine fix. Both much healthier options to smoking. Due to his inconsideration of smoking in the presence of non smokers, my family was constantly hounded by minor health problems such as constant coughing, severe headaches, and asthma. My father said that it was our fault that we were always sick. He said that we did not have to stay in the room when he smoked. The problem that he refused to acknowledge was that the smoke he exhaled stayed in the area of the household.
So the minute we left our rooms, we would smell the nicotine in the air and cough uncontrollably because of the almost zero oxygen level in the room. Eventually, my father got sick. His lungs were affected by decades of smoking and his lung sacs were not riddled with holes and the doctors diagnosed him with Emphysema, a lung illness that often affects long term cancer smokers. My father has since stopped smoking. But the damage has been done and he will now have to live his remaining days dealing with the illness that he brought upon himself.
5 packs a day used to be the minimum for my cousin. She said smoking helped her to lose weight and control her appetite. I told her that she could the same results by simply dieting and exercising. Her other argument was that all cool women smoked cigarettes. I told her that sure, smoking looked like a cool thing to do. But did she ever consider that when she was out on a date, her breath smelled like a sewer line and all the perfume she could wear would not mask the smell of smoke on her clothes? It is never acceptable to go out in public smelling like a mix of sweat and nicotine.
It makes most people you mingle with hold their breaths till you leave or vomit if they can keep it down till after the smoker leaves. Eventually, she married and continued to smoke, she even smoked while she was pregnant. Totally disregarding the health of her unborn child and the doctors warning about how the child could be born with complications. Needless to say, the child was born severely underweight, jaundiced, and with breathing problems. Her baby stayed in the hospital an extra month while the doctors tried to clean up the baby’s health.
She stopped smoking after that. My cousin stopped smoking just in time to save her own health and insure that her next child would be born healthy and without complications. I also have a friend who works as a help desk representative. It is very taxing and stressful work. He used to drink a lot of coffee while at work in order to help him stay alert and serve as a release mechanism while on the job. But as the work load got heavier, he turned to smoking as the more convenient way of dealing with the work related stress.
He could have even used a hand held stress ball while at his desk in order to help relieve his tensions. He could even get up and walk during his break time if he wanted to. But he chose to engage in this activity that could do nothing for him except ruin his health. Specially in this line of work where his voice is his tool of trade. He slowly developed a throat problem. When e consulted the company doctor, he found out that his hours of smoking had already affected his vocal chords. The only way he could be helped was if he stopped smoking.
He did it cold turkey and his voice is currently on its way to recovery. The bad part is that because of the way the air is circulated throughout their office, the smoke filled air manages to make its way into the area of people who are non smokers as well. They too have been affected by the smoking of their officemates and also face the health hazards of inhaling second hand smoke themselves. Though it is true that smoking is not the only activity that poses health risks for individuals. In fact, there are various other sources of health hazards posed by technology and our fast paced lifestyle.
Places such as gas stations and dry cleaners, cars, even just simply cooking helps to poison the air we breath. Sure, these places also pose as public health hazards. But these places and situations have been recognized as health hazards and safety measures are being developed and put into place in order to lessen the health complications that may be arising in the future. The same cannot be said for the manufacturers of cigarettes. They have never made a move to try and come up with healthy cigarettes because it is impossible to do.
The truth is that they are hawking legalized addiction. Making it seem and beneficial to people who engage in the activity instead of showing the truth about their product. You might say it can be considered to be the sample of the effects of possibly legalizing marijuana. The difference between the other methods of air pollution that affect our health and smoking is that we are all warned about the hazards of smoking and yet smokers choose to ignore it. They choose to gamble with their lives and the lives of those around them each time they light up a cigarette.
The ban on smoking has nothing to do with trying to control the choices people make. Like I said, smoking affects everyone both directly and indirectly. Therefore, if people do not realize that what they are doing is wrong, they need to be protected from that which they do not realize is actually harming them before it is too late. Once again, I must reiterate that the smoking ban is something we should all support because it is a move that is being enacted for the good of many. The smokers just do not realize it yet.