Should cigarettes and other tobacco products be outlawed?
People have been aware of the negative effects of smoking in public since the 1960’s. But
it’s only been recently, however, that research has confirmed that smoking may put one’s and
other people’s health at risk. Smoking makes those around you second hand/passive smokers
(Ojeda, A. 2002 p. 23). The dangers they are exposed to have been used to validate increasingly
strict bans on smoking in public areas. There are two types of second hand smoke that have been
recognized by the National Cancer Institution: side stream smoke and mainstream smoke. Side
stream smoke is the smoke that is released from the ignited end of a cigarette and mainstream
smoke is the smoke that is exhaled by the smoker.
Both of the mentioned types of smoke include not only tobacco smoke but also filtrate
from paper and chemicals used to process tobacco (Ojeda, A. 2002). Second hand smoking
damages the bodies of passive smokers in the same way that it does to the bodies of smokers
although in a much lesser degree (Berridge, V. 2007, p.34). Thousands of heart cancer cases and
tens of thousands of heart disease reports are as a result of passive smoking every year. In
America for example, studies show that passive smoking also causes at least 1500 respiratory
related infections in children under the age of five every year (Wekesser, C. 1997, p.121).
In conclusion, due to the massive negative effects of smoking, local governments
worldwide have taken corrective measures to curb this menace such as bans. In the U.S for
instance the government has outlawed smoking in public areas such as airline flights, restaurants
and interstate buses. Smoking in public also poses an environmental hazard due to litter and also
fire hazards. Public smoking bans have reduced greatly pollution caused by cigarettes and thus
the environment is conserved. These bans also lessen the visibility of smoking to kids making it
less probable that they will start smoking at a tender age (Berridge, V. 2007).
