346 W8. Discussion Post

346 W8 Martine's Response

[Name of the Writer]

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346 W8 Martine's Response

Tobacco smoke contains various chemical products that are harmful to health. It includes carcinogens and mutagens, respiratory and eye irritants, reproductive and systemic toxicants. The government has taken measures against tobacco exposure to control the harmful impact of smoking which is not much effective. For instance, it is illegal to smoke at public places. However, it cannot decrease the amount of smoking. Instead, when people try to smoke at the non-public place or indoor it destroys the indoor environment. Every year, tobacco causes 450,000 premature deaths in America. According to me, smoking should be illegal. This is because of the harmful impact of second-hand smoke. People have freedom to decide whether they want to smoke or not but freedom should not be given on the things that have an impact on someone else's life.

Secondhand smoke is a combination of smoke from cigarettes and from the smoke breathed out by smokers. It contains approximately seven thousands of harmful chemicals in which seventy types of chemical leads to cancer. The report indicates that about 2.5 million non-smokers adults died since 1964 because of tobacco exposure. There is no way to be free from secondhand smoke. People who smoke leave smoke in the air which non-smokers inhale. Non-smokers can be family member or stranger around the smoker. They get affected by the smoke the same as they are smoking. Every year about thousand infants die during pregnancy because their mothers inhale second-hand smoke. It also causes lung cancer, stroke, and heart diseases ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"KRMUBhG2","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(CDCTobaccoFree, 2017)","plainCitation":"(CDCTobaccoFree, 2017)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":845,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/mlRB1JqV/items/U34FJ684"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/mlRB1JqV/items/U34FJ684"],"itemData":{"id":845,"type":"webpage","title":"Health Effects of Secondhand Smoke","container-title":"Centers for Disease Control and Prevention","abstract":"See the data and statistical information on the health effects of secondhand smoke.","URL":"https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/secondhand_smoke/health_effects/index.htm","language":"en-us","author":[{"family":"CDCTobaccoFree","given":""}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017",1,11]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",7,5]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (CDCTobaccoFree, 2017).

Various countries have made the law that smoking at the public place is prohibited. The reason for taking this step is to control health issues. The government wants to save the health of non-smoker however the law is not giving benefit either to non-smoker or smoker. The reason is that it is difficult for the people who are addicted to tobacco not to light the cigarette for long time. They try to find the place for smoking time to time. Therefore, it automatically makes places unsuitable for other people. People breathe smoke while moving around that places and get affected. This is why health issues due to the secondhand smoking is not decreasing.

People think it is difficult to ban the cigarette because of two main reasons. First, the power of big firms producing cigarettes. They are making a profit on producing and selling the large number of cigarettes which becomes part of GDP. Therefore, it is not easy for the government to shut down the firms all at once. Second, people think it is a personal choice and the government has no right to ban it because of non-smoker population. However the question arises here what kind of profit or freedom it is that is resulting in the critical health issues and death ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"q2937NpF","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(\\uc0\\u8220{}Should Smoking Be Banned in Public Places?,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)","plainCitation":"(“Should Smoking Be Banned in Public Places?,” n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":844,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/mlRB1JqV/items/AKMSI9RB"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/mlRB1JqV/items/AKMSI9RB"],"itemData":{"id":844,"type":"webpage","title":"Should Smoking Be Banned in Public Places?","container-title":"DebateWise","abstract":"Many countries have laws that prohibit smoking in public places because it affects non smokers as well. There are many good arguments for and against it.","URL":"https://debatewise.org/debates/1160-should-smoking-be-banned-in-public-places/","language":"en-US","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",7,5]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“Should Smoking Be Banned in Public Places?,” n.d.). It does not make any sense that people cannot smoke at the place which is meant for everyone while they can smoke at their home or car. Smoke does not stay at one place its cloud move around and somehow reach to the non-smoker. In other words, only twenty-five percent of tobacco is used by the smoker whole remaining seventy-five percent is left for the people who care for themselves.

The bottom line is that tobacco exposure is harmful to the people causing cancer, lung disease, and even death. The government prohibited smoking at a public place is not effective either for smoker or non-smoker. If the government really wants to reduce the health issue caused by tobacco then cigarettes should be banned. There is no other way to save the non-smoker health.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY CDCTobaccoFree. (2017, January 11). Health Effects of Secondhand Smoke. Retrieved July 5, 2019, from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website: https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/secondhand_smoke/health_effects/index.htm

Should Smoking Be Banned in Public Places? (n.d.). Retrieved July 5, 2019, from DebateWise website: https://debatewise.org/debates/1160-should-smoking-be-banned-in-public-places/