| 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.
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