Critical Analysis of Smoking in Public Areas Essay

Introduction

Tobacco is one of the most widely used drugs in the world, it is used in form of cigarettes and in mixtures with marijuana and cannabis joints. Even though many countries set age limits on cigarette smoking, more than a billion adults legally smoke tobacco every day. Many countries have laws that are against smoking in public because of the effects on the passive smokers as well. But also it appears as though this law protects the passive smokers only. Tobacco can lead to addiction whereby the active smokers cannot go for hours without smoking. Smokers feel they have the right to smoke when and where the urge arises while nonsmokers feel smokers violate their rights to free fresh air. These bring about arguments on whether to ban smoking in public or to legalize it.

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Banning smoking in communal places is arguably unfair to smokers and takes away from their choice; on the other hand, not prohibiting it is unfair as it puts the health of the nonsmokers in danger making public places not safe for them.

The argument for banning smoking in public areas

People argue that they have rights to uncontaminated air and to an unpolluted atmosphere. Public smoking should be banned in public places such as schools, hospitals, and hotels for man's sake, considering the huge health risk of both active and passive smokers.( Schmucker et al,2014) .Smoking is found to be annoying for several explanations.Cigarette smokes is very stale, it lingers on both smokers and nearby nonsmokers clothing and hair and takes longer to fade away. Cigarette smoke causes eye irritation, bad breath and stained teeth which are part of personal hygiene. Smokers are often judged and criticized by others for smoking in public.( Emont et al, 2017). People argue that cigarette smoking is a waste of time and money. Cigarette smoke is a combination of fumes and fine specks most which are toxic and cancerous.this fumes cannot be curbed by any means of air purification, the best solution is by banning public smoking.( Lim et al,2018) Another reason for banning public smoking is to reduce littering. Cigarette barrels make up for most of the litter collected annually. If cigarette butts are properly disposed of by the public smokers, this might not be an issue.this is not among the major reasons for public smoking banning but it is an important one. Many believe that if smoking in public was prohibited, the environment would be safe for everyone.

Arguments on legalizing public smoking

Some people argue that smoking in public as opposed to smoking indoors is less harmful because smoke can disperse much easier in the open air than in confined spaces which will be further risky especially to the ones who do not smoke. In addition smoking in public increases the ambient background CO level, which reduces the risk of getting Parkinson's disease in those exposed to the second-hand smoke, even though they do not get as much danger decrease as the smokers.

Conclusion

Both points of legalizing and banning smoking in public have strong arguments.The first argument of banning public cigarette smoking states that nonsmokers have a right to be able to remain in a smoke restricted environment and be secondhand smoke-free. The second argument does not have strong points like the first one, it only mentions the freedom right of the smokers to smoke in public.

Works Cited

Schmucker, J., et al. "Smoking ban in public areas is associated with a reduced incidence of hospital admissions due to ST-elevation myocardial infarctions in non-smokers. Results from the Bremen STEMI Registry." European journal of preventive cardiology 21.9 (2014): 1180-1186.

Emont, S., et al. "Public attitudes about cigarette smoking: Results from the 1990 Smoking Activity." (2017).

Lim, Kuang Hock, et al. "Exposure to tobacco secondhand smoke and its associated factors among non-smoking adults in smoking-restricted and non-restricted areas: findings from a nationwide study in Malaysia." BMJ open 8.1 (2018): e017203.

Platter, Heather N., and Steven B. Pokorny. "Smoke-free signage in public parks: impacts on smoking behaviour." Tobacco control (2017): tobaccocontrol-2016.