Cigarette Smoking Essay, Research Paper
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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