Why Do Smokers Have The Right To Smoke In Public

Smoking is an activity that has been around for many years for people to use and adapt into their lifestyle. It is a tool that many people use to help reduce the stresses of life and put them in a comfortable position that enables them to cope with the hectic lifestyle they are living. However, smoking has been scientifically proven to cause many types of cancer, the most common being lung cancer resulting in numerous deaths across the United States. According to BBC, "Smoking is a greater cause of death and disability than any single disease" (BBC, 2). Evidently, the benefits and drawbacks of smoking have been debated for many years, and only recently have some countries have placed a ban in public places such as Britain and the United

This problem, which plagues all Americans, should have action taken on a local scale to help protect the health of the public. The Ames City Council is in the process of debating a city ordanince which whould ban smoking in all public places, with the exception of those designated as "smokng areas". A public place shall be defined by Subsection

Dr. David L. Katz, A clinical professor of public health, and director of the prevention research center at Yale University School of Medicine expresses his opinion on public smoking in the following passage.

Public smoking has been an issue for people who do not take part in the smoking epidemic for as long as smoking has been around. What people need to understand is that individuals who do not engage in the activity of ruining their lungs are being forced into the act of involuntary smoking rather they like it or not, and that is unacceptable.

). “According to the 2014 Surgeon General’s Report, there have been more than 20 million smoking-related deaths in the United States since 1964; 2.5 million of those deaths were among non-smokers who died from exposure to secondhand smoke.” (American Cancer Society, 2015).

Every day in America families’ gathers together to celebrate special events or the accomplishments of one of its members. Many times these special moments can be ruined or brought to an abrupt end due to others nearby smoking. Public spaces should be safe and accessible to all members of society to use without the inconvenience of someone else’s smoking ruining their outing or causing health issues to flare up such as, asthma. People do have the right to choose to smoke if they desire, but nonsmokers have the right to go out to public places with their family and not be exposed to harmful secondhand smoke. Studies have shown that secondhand smoke is just as harmful as smoking and leads to a higher occurrence of cancer and heart disease. Furthermore,

and The question is why the freedom to smoke in a designated area in public places a problem. If you are outside are in close area people are still exposed to the fumes of second hand smoke. Can the option of smoking be left up to the public rather or not an individual should smoke in public. Where does the line end in the rights of a person the right to inhale clean air, the right to excise your right to smoke in public? Non-Smokers have the right to smoke free clean air environment, and smokers have a personal right to smoke in designated smoking areas. In this research paper I will talk about the controversy issue of second-hand smoke in public places and the privilege to smoke in public.

Nearly 3,000 nonsmoker die each year due to the outcome of having them considered as second hand smokers. An individual has the right of choice of being a smoker or not. Yet, nonsmokers’ rights are being violated when they’re in public and are literally forced to be “passive smokers”.

There is no debate on the fact that second hand smoke is extremely dangerous to the individual exposed to that harm. Not only does passive smoking cause short term affects such as; dizziness, headache, coughing, wheezing, eye irritation, sore throat, and nausea, but the person also experiences long term affect that might decline their health dramatically. These long term affects consist of the dramatic increase of the risk of lung cancer as well as other lung related issues. The fact that someone else's own selfish actions can so dramatically influence and affect those around them is quite shocking and lurid.

There is an irrefutable correlation between the increasing effects of secondhand smoke on the health and well being of human beings that are constantly in the vicinity of smokers. Evidently, secondhand smoking has undeniably become problematic for a plethora of intense, health-altering reasons that include but are not limited to diseases and early death that are caused to nonsmokers by secondhand exposure from the burning of tobacco. Even the smallest, briefest amount of secondhand exposure causes immediate health implications. Laws that prohibit smoking in public places have been proven to directly improve the health of people in those areas. Secondhand smoking causes an increased risk for heart disease, stroke, SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome), asthma, and lung cancer. Annually, over 45,000 nonsmokers die from implications brought about by secondhand smoking. 34,000 of these deaths are deaths from heart disease, 8,000 from stroke, and 7,300 from lung cancer. People of lower socioeconomic status are much more likely to smoke which therefore puts minorities at a higher

During the past few decades it has come to light that smoking kills. The federal government mandates that every pack of cigarettes carry a warning on it that smoking can lead to health problems including death. But the messages are rather clinical, for example: “Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, and May Complicate Pregnancy.” Smoking is a danger to one’s own health but there is now evidence that smoking can affect others as well. Second hand smoke has been shown to cause cancer. Second hand smoke has been shown to produce the same negative health effects that smoking first hand does. Cities across the nation are taking it upon themselves to address the issue of smoking in public place because of the evidence about the

Do you smell that? That foul scent mixed into the air. It’s killing you slowly inside, each time you take a breath of this putrid, polluted, dirty scent. You smell it too, the trillions of chemicals racing into your lungs. Now look around yourself, and you’ll see someone smoking on the bench beside you. Smoking is the number one avoidable causes of death. Therefore, smoking should be banned from all public areas. The ban from smoking in public will help to reduce the smokers intake of cigarettes/chemicals, cigarettes themselves are a danger to the earth, some may argue that this ban may damage the cigarette economy, and that smoking does not only effect the smoker himself/herself, it effects everyone around them, in many various ways.

Would you purposely stub your toe on the coffee table or purposely hit your thumb with a hammer? Then why would you or anyone do an act that you know would hurt you or those around you? Why would a person smoke in a public place when they know it can cause them and their loved ones harm? This is one of many of the reasons why smoking should be banned in public places. Before we get into the argument of whether smoking should be allowed in public places or not, we first need to identify a few items: the concept of smoking, the reasons people smoke, the government’s involvement, and an alternative solution.

Some individuals smoke inside their own home, which is completely their choice. Entering into a public place while smoking affects complete strangers by forcing them to breathe in the toxins from the cigarette. The smoker has a filter at the end of the cigarette; the innocent bystander has nothing but toxic smoke to inhale. According to Opposing View Points, “To protect nonsmokers from exposure to secondhand smoke, the United States passed laws limiting smoking in public places. During the 1970s, states and cities began requiring nonsmoking areas in public areas and workplaces. Over the next thirty years, many workplaces and public areas became “smoke-free environments,” where smoking was completely forbidden. Regulations on smoking in public vary across states and cities; however, federal law bans smoking in all federal facilities and control smoking on airplanes, which was banned in 1990 for all domestic flights less than six hours long. Today, most flights between the United States and other countries are also smoke free” (Smoking). Before smoking was prohibited in restaurants and other public areas, my family dined at a local Waffle House. My toddler son sat in a highchair in the aisle when a woman walked past our table smoking a cigarette. I remember thinking to myself, “That smoke follows her like

How many people have been walking around in a public place, and been bombarded with a thick cloud of smoke surrounding them? The truth is, many of us have been in this situation. Rather or not if we like or dislike the fact, it happens. There is a way to prevent such an annoying and disruptive act. In light of this, cigarette smoking should be banned from all public places, such as restaurants, bars, clubs and even parks.