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,
whezzing, 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

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