Cigarette Smoking

For a long time now many people have 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 there life. Smoking causes heart disease, lung cancer and other

serious illnesses. Cigarette smoking is the number one cause of lung

cancer. A substantial number of lung cancers that occur in non-smokers can

be attributed to involuntary smoking. There are some parts in the United

States where you can smoke in public places, on the other hand in New York

there are designated areas. While some people feel that smoking in public

places should remain since it is their right, smoking in public places

should be banned because second-hand smoke will endanger non-smokers health

and it pollutes the enviroment.

Smokers feel they have had the right to smoke in a public place for so

long that it should not be taken away. Resturants and businesses should be

allowed to set their own smoking rules, based on demands of the customers.

Also business may decrease if they do not allow smokers the right to smoke,

ecspecially bars and restaurants. The work place is another problem for

smokers, now they have to go outside even in the winter to have a

cigarette, even though they used to be able to smoke inside.A strong

supporter on smokers rights is Democratic Assemblyman Dick Floyd, who

wanted to vote for a controversial smokers right bill. He feels it is not a

smoking bill, it merely protects the people who use legal substances such

as tobacco and alcohol in their homes from job discrimination.

However, smoking in public places is a danger to non-smokers health

for the reason of passive or second-hand smoke. The public does not realize

the significant hazards of passive smoking. A U.S enviromental protection

agency stated second-hand smoke is the third major cause of lung cancer in

the United States. The simple separation of smokers within the same air

space may reduce, but does not eliminate exposure to passive smoke. In

Arizona five thousand and six hundred Americans died in 1989 due to passive

smoke. A recent federal Environmental protection agency reported on the

dangers of second hand smoke. They found this kills fifty-three thousand

non smokers a year. By putting a smoke free policy into effect, it will

send a strong message about protecting health. Even though designated areas

are set aside for smokers this does not really protect a non-smoker. The

heating and air conditions does not filter out carcinogens well enough and

the smoke drifts onto non-designated areas.

Finally, if public smoking is kept legalized we will have major

problems facing the environment. One problem is alot of people are

irritated by tobacco smoke. A man named General C.Everett Knoop released a

report saying that passive smoking, when a non-smokers breathe smoke in an

enclosed area, it causes as many as five deaths a year. Smoking in a public

place is an air pollutant and it can damage health in a number of ways. The

four major health hazards fall into air, water, and noise pollution. Air

pollution can lead to various forms of respiratory disease. The main

problem of smoking in a public place is indoor air pollution. Some of these

problems that result indoor air pollution is building ventilation that has

been reduced to conserve energy, with the result that ventiliation is

simply inadequate. Combustion by products from smoking tobacco have

produced substances, smoke included, that contaminate indoor air. The

problem effecting a person who is in a contaminated enviroment may result

in coughing, wheezing, chest tightness, muscular aches, chills, headaches,

fever and fatigue. To solve this we have to have extra ventilation and keep

designated areas in the public places if there are any.

Although some claim that smoking in a public place is their right and

should be kept that, smoking in public places should not be legalized

because it will endanger non-smokers from passive smoke and it pollutes our

enviroment. The state of New York will remain restricting smoking to

designated areas. Cigarettes are the most deadly habit, affecting the

greatest number of people in the world today. A ban on public smoking would

create a healthier country.

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