Smoking Essay, Research Paper

Smoking in public places should be illegal, and today, we the affirmative

team, will give

you many reasons to prove why.

People have been smoking cigarettes for hundreds of years, but it wasn’t

until

recently that people started to realize exactly how bad cigarette smoking is.

It can have a

number of negative effects on the smoker, such as – Lung Cancer, Emphysema,

Heart

Disease etc?Not only can it have these effects on the smoker, but a person

who is simply

being exposed to the smoke can contract the same illnesses, which hardly

seems fair.

Smoking in public places is actually endangering people’s lives.

Secondhand smoking is proven to cause lung cancer. Many reputable groups that

have inspected the evidence have reached the same conclusion, such as the US

Surgeon

general’s office, National Research Council, National institute of

occupational safety and

health, international agency for research on cancer, and the US occupational

safety and

health administration. Studies conducted show that people who breathe

secondhand

smoke are 150% more likely to get lung cancer later. Exposure to second hand

smoke

causes about 47,000 deaths from heart disease and 3,000 lung cancer deaths,

making

Secondhand Smoke the third leading cause of preventable death in the country.

Not only

that, but Secondhand smoke causes up to 300,000 cases of lower respiratory

tract

infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia in infants and young children.

These children

and adults are totally innocent, and have made the choice to keep their

bodies healthy by

NOT smoking, yet their results are just as bad, if not worse, then the

smokers! Americans

should have the right to be healthy if they so choose, and to do that, we

need to create a

smoke-free environment in all public places.

Cigarette smoke contains about 300 dangerous chemicals. In order to contain

these chemicals to just the smoking sections, ventilation rates would have to

be increased

more than a thousand-fold to reduce cancer risk. Even if we had the money to

do that, it

would be impractical, because it would crease a virtual windstorm!

Many places in the US already do ban smoking and the results have all been

positive. 85% of the nations shopping malls are now smoke free. Princeton

borough and

township are doing things that hopefully many other towns and cities will

follow–they are

the first localities in the New York metropolitan region to outlaw smoking in

almost all

public places, including bars and restaurants. The Law states that smoking

should be

allowed only in private homes, outdoors and in the borough’s single smoke

shop. This is

exactly the kind of law we need throughout the United States.

Many restaurants across the Nation have banned smoking and it has not hurt

business at all. Even smoke-free ordinances in North Carolina, the number one

tobacco-

producing state in the US, have brought on a positive effect. The vast

majority of studies

shown have proved the same thing. Studies in California and Arizona had

similar results.

Massachusetts’s smoke free restaurants increased sales by 4%. In New York

City, eating

out has increased since the city’s clean indoor air law took effect. The year

2000 the

target date to make all enclosed public areas smoke free. New York started by

limiting

the smoking sections in existing restaurants and making all new restaurants

completely

smoke-free. In all my research, I only found one article on how clean indoor

air

regulations had a negative effect, and it turned out those places were

getting paid off by

the tobacco company!

Not only does the new law not affect the restaurants and other public places,

but it

doesn’t affect the people negatively either! In a recent pole, 2.8 million of

the 46 million

smokers said they’d quit if there were a national ban. Fifty thousand others

would decide

not to start each year the law is in effect! This may not sound like a lot,

but it is.

Cigarette consumption would decline at least 10%, which is about 2.5 million

packs a

year! Before, about one half of the non-smokers were avoiding certain

restaurants b/c of

the smoke. Now, 17% of non-smokers eat out more, and are making up greatly

for the

33% of smokers who refuse to eat in these restaurants. This may seem like a

lot, but in

fact, it isn’t! Only 30% of Americans smoke, so actually only 10% aren’t

eating out b/c of

the law, while about 30% more people are! In total, 86% of the American

population is

not only fine with the Clean Indoor Air Act, but actually like it.

Smoking kills people; it’s a fact. But the people who choose to smoke already

know that. They make the choice to risk their lives because they choose to

smoke

cigarettes. There is nothing we can do about that, it’s their life, and it’s

their right.

However, nonsmokers have rights too. They have the right to not be subjected

to a

harmful environment. They chose not to smoke, mostly b/c of the damaging

effects. We

have to help to give nonsmokers their rights as well. Millions of lives are

lost because of

secondhand smoke in public places. Banning smoking in all public places is

and would be

extremely beneficial to everyone and save millions of innocent lives. It’s

stupid to let so

many people die from something that can be stopped so easily.