Smoking in the Presence of Children Smoking is the biggest cause of preventable death in the world. In the US, it causes about 480,000 deaths per year, and about 42,000 deaths from secondhand smoke (“Smoking and Tobacco...”). Young children are particularly vulnerable to exposure to secondhand smoke when they live with parents or guardians that smoke. Children that are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke get sick more often, have more lung infections, are more likely to cough, wheeze, and have shortness of breath, and get more ear infections (“Health Risks of...”). It would be a benefit to our society if we banned smoking in the presence of children to help prevent the risk of health problems and death related to secondhand smoke. One reason I think smoking in the presence of children should be banned in homes and in public is because secondhand smoke can cause premature death. Since 1964, approximately 2,500,000 nonsmokers have died from health problems caused by exposure to secondhand smoke (“Secondhand Smoke...”). Some people think this is unrealistic because it would be hard to enforce in homes. I think that if the law keeps even …show more content…
Smoking can easily cause lifelong health problems for children that have never even picked up a cigarette. It is a proven fact that children that are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke get sick more often, have more lung infections, are more likely to cough, wheeze, have shortness of breath, and get more ear infections (“Health Risks of...”). Both of my grandparents were heavy smokers so my mom and her younger brothers developed asthma at a young age. Opponents might argue that a ban would violate parents' and guardians' rights to make decisions for themselves, but I say that it's a violation of the children's rights to make them smoke when they didn't choose to. By smoking near children parents are basically forcing their kids to inhale harmful
Children 's lungs are still developing at young ages and adult’s occurs harmful effects on the heart. There are millions of children breathing smoke in their home with second hand smoke and second hand smokers don’t realize that their children are especially at more risk to their health than they are. Smoking in vehicles with under age of 18 should ban the law and children whose parents smoke around should also be illegal because in a small enclosed space such as a vehicle with a sunroof has more toxic air which expose breathing more rapidly. According to the author Leada Grove, created an article from AL.com wrote that “80 percent of smoke is invisivble and opening windows does not remove its harmful effects. The level of toxic air in a vehicle where someone is smoking is up to 10 times worse than levels that is considered hazardous”. Approximately 250,000 children and adults (non smokers) have died from health problems that exposed to secondhand smoke. Some states in the U.S. had established the secondhand smoke law that is illegal, however other states are still under construction to establish this law. All states should make this law a new law for all second hand smokers because as of right now our country have gained a major health issue and money wise for the government.
Many people in America have some kind of respiratory illness such as asthma. These asthmatics wheeze at the sheer idea of someone smoking. Swearing that they have developed a sixth sense, they can detect smoke from a mile away, immediately knowing which direction to avoid. Secondhand smoke affects everyone, especially the people who want nothing to do with it. Countless mere bystanders die each year from secondhand smoke not being able to do anything to prevent it other that becoming a hermit or wearing a hazard suit at all times. Not to mention what it does to the health of the smoker, lung cancer, caused by smoking, has been a leading cause of death in America for years. A multitude of different diseases go along with smoking and using tobacco other products including gum disease, yellowing of finger and toenails, rotting teeth, and heart disease. Is this the world favorable to live in? Horrifyingly enough, the world exhibits this now. Putting a ban on smoking will protect the common
Well I think that we are all in agreement that protecting children from second hand smoke is right thing to do. But I think that the real questions with this is, when does it become the parent's responsibility rather than the government's, both local and federal.
Their just kids being kids, right? That’s what everyone says when you make a mistake as a kid. You’re told that experimenting is okay and you shouldn’t worry it’s just a phase, but what happens when it’s no longer a phase? What happens when it becomes an addiction? That is what has happened to 23% of high schoolers with tobacco products (“Smoking & Tobacco Use”). We all hear about the dangers of drunk driving, or smoking marijuana, but what about the dangers of smoking cigarettes. Cigarettes lead to addiction, pneumonia, stroke, and death. Tobacco overall, is an addictive substance with horrible consequences that should be banned for its health effects and the influence it has over teens. So, what are the health effects of tobacco? First we should know the dangers in a tobacco. There are over 7,000 chemical and 250 of those are known to be harmful (“Harms of Cigarette Smoking and Health Benefits of Quitting”). Out of those 250 there at least 69 that cause cancer (“Health Effects of Tobacco”). The types of cancer you can get from cigarettes include: lung, throat, liver, pancreas, and at least 10 other types. It can also cause other problems such as, the impairment of immune function and heart disease (“Health Effects of Tobacco”). In the United States alone, just cigarettes cause more than 480,000 deaths per year (“Smoking & Tobacco Use”). Smoking causes more deaths than HIV, illegal drug use, alcohol use,
Secondhand smoke is unhealthy for everyone, especially for young children. Children are more susceptible to suffer the detrimental health effects of secondhand smoke because they breathe in more air than adults due to their size and weight. In addition, children are constantly growing and developing. During their development stage, children are more sensitive to the consequences of secondhand smoke, which is ultimately dangerous to their immune and respiratory systems. Furthermore, secondhand smoke is significantly harmful to children with asthma, which is a chronic health condition whose symptoms include coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath. Children, both with and without asthma, are powerless to protect themselves from the dangers of secondhand smoke, so we the adults have to protect them.
if cigarettes were banned in the United States, the government could apend the money currently used to pay medical bills, on more necessary causes. Instead of this money being used for diseases which were knowingly brought upon by the smoker him or herslf, this money could be used in finding a cure for diseases that are not preventable. Perhaps the saddest effect of smoking is that on pregnant smokers and their babies. When pregnant women smoke, their babies are being forced to smoke, too. many women begin smoking at an early age and find it hard to quit even during pregnancy. Information given from Health Watch discribes smoking as a harmful gas and deadly substance thats passes throughout baby's blood
Smoking is an activity in the society that has become a serious topic as it causes health problems to both smokers and passive smokers due to the inhalation of tobacco. Consequently, the most visible alternative for the legislators and other institutions in various countries is the banning of smoking in public. Smoking is not only a social habit that does harm non-smokers but it also takes away their freedom from being forced to inhale the contents of the cigarettes. Nowadays, many developed countries around the world enacted laws and established rules against smoking in public areas as a consequence of effecting "second smokers" especially children and babies. Banning should be considered the possible solution to this problem.
In some cases, a kid’s fate was sealed with the first cigarette”(Hyde 8). Pregnancy and smoking is probably one of the worst things someone could ever do your hurting a child with your bad habits” Smoking causes twenty to thirty- percent of infant deaths and low birth babies”(Smoking). Also being pregnant gives a higher chance of miscarriages, stillbirths, increased birth defects, and infants born with lung failure all increase exponentially (Bakdash 1). Do we as human beings want this to continue maybe a child who was destined to cure cancer or be one of our next great president died because of this should we as a people outlaw this or keep it to satisfy the people who cannot stop. Many people have heard the phrase “Giving up smoking is easiest thing in the world. I know I’ve done it a thousand of times. This quote and variations of it are often wrongly attributed to Mark Twain”(Hyde 96). this is completely wrong it is very hard to stop it takes months even years to get over an addiction of nicotine. The benefits of quitting smoking are tremendous “carbon monoxide levels drop down to a normal level in just eight hours, your blood pressure drops down to normal just after twenty minutes, after twenty-four hours your chances of heart attacks decrease exponentially”(Hyde 106-107). quitting smoking could be one of the most satisfying things on earth for some people but they would have never gotten themselves into
Tobacco consumption is known for the numerous diseases and cancer it brings. “It is scientifically proven for being six out of eight leading causes of death around the globe” (“Smoking and Heart Disease”). People who ingest the product on a regular basis are said to run the risk of developing oral cancer, lung cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, and birth defects to children from women smoking during pregnancy. People seem to think that cigarette smoke and tobacco consumption only affects those who personally consume it, but little do they know it can give those closest around them the same dangers and risks just by secondhand consumption. It can cause a huge range of serious health effects. “Secondhand smoke causes approximately 7,330 deaths from lung cancer and 33,950 deaths from heart disease each year and between 1964 and 2014, 2.5 million people died from exposure to secondhand smoke” ( Health Effects of Secondhand Smoke”). Not only does smoking tobacco from cigarettes cause personal danger, but also danger to the surrounding community. The burning of the cigarette or the lit bud fallen off the cigarette can cause fires around the house, or any surrounding areas. Cigarettes are known for causing more house fires, and forest fires than anything else. People seem to be ignorant when thinking cigarettes are only affecting themselves, when in reality it is doing just as much harm to those loved ones closest to them, or just people around them at the time, and even their community and own home.
In 1997 about 20% of non-smokers were likely to end up with lung cancer. According to USA today, “the number of people that were hospitalized for strokes fell from 16% while the hospitalization for respiratory disease fell 24%” they believe that the more demanding the law the more impact it will have (Szabo, 2012). Being around a smoker can endanger an innocent bystander’s health. Even kids are at risk when it comes to developing asthma. Statistics have proven that a non-smoker is susceptible to second hand smoke that can lead to lung cancer as well. This means, there is the possibility of non-smokers being affected even if it means being in contact for less than thirty minutes. It affects the blood flow as well as the blood vessels and of course the heart. Although we cannot immediately keep smokers off the street (not that I want to), we can still work to have the act banned from public places to insure the health of others as well as smokers. Banning smoking on hospital grounds should definitely happen. Hospitals are supposed to be a healthy ground, not a toxic place where one may go and get sick just by standing outside around a smoker. The hospital is a place for curing so anything that can harm a patient should not be allowed in or around the facility. Smoking should be done on the smoker’s time when they are alone. According to
In conclusion, smoking should be banned because it is killing people everyday. Smokers die about 10 years earlier than non-smokers on average. 10 years are taken from them by cigarettes. So to anyone who smokes, quit smoking, do everything possible to get rid of the habit that can take over someone's life. Non-smokers write letters, sign petitions and stay away from smoking, this can be
In normal conditions i would agree, of the ban, if was in areas where there are sick people, young children but not around adults that do and don't smoke.This applies to only out door not indoors, As for indoors smoking should be banned. Reasons for better well being is needed better ventilation will be; when area is smoke free.
They are not knowledgeable on the effects that SHS has on their lives. Children see their parents smoking and mimic their actions. “Most children don’t like tobacco smoke and don’t like their parents smoking, but by the age of 15, 8% are regular smokers” (Public Health of England, [PHE], 2016). When people who smoke surround innocent children, it is harder to encourage them to not take up smoking (PHE, 2016). The optimal way to cease the smoking and secondhand smoke issues in children is to advise their parents to quit. Getting through to the parents could potentially increase the risk of not only children smoking but also decrease the risk of secondhand smoke in their environments. For infants, this process would be more difficult. Parents need to remember that when they smoke, their babies also smoke. While their lungs can handle the powerful toxins, an unborn baby and infants underdeveloped lungs
Smoking is not good for people it is a bad way to make yourself feel good. I do not like smoking because a family member of mine smokes and he says he does it to relieve stress. When he comes to visit he smells just like he just had a cigarette. My grandmother also smokes and I keep telling her “it is not good” and she says I am old I can do whatever I want. One time my family and I were on the road to Houston and my grandma found out and told my mom to bring her some cigarettes. My mom quickly said no and we did not go visit her. I believe no one should smoke. Smoking is not good for anyone to do, they should just ban
The numbers of people who smoke have increase over the years. Although they are equipped with the knowledge of how unhealthy smoking can be, people still choose to smoke. It is a personal choice and a highly addictive habit. Smokers choose to subject themselves to the health risks of smoking. It is not for the government or any third party to dictate whether or not a person should be allowed to smoke. However, smoking does not only affect the smoker negatively. It also affects all the people around those who smoke because when people smoke in pubic the smoke travels everywhere through the air, and the negative effects of this smoke affects all living, breathing creatures. Therefore smoking should be banned in all public places.