Ban on Outdoor Smoking

Research Paper: Ban on Outdoor Smoking

I support the ban on outdoor smoking because smoking results in poor health, mortality, and pollution. The reality is that, bans on smoking in offices and other enclosed public places often result in smokers going outside to smoke, frequently congregating outside doorways and therefore shifting the problem elsewhere. Smoking causes numerous diseases and health problems, some fatal, among both smokers and non-smokers. For this reason, smoking is prohibited in a growing number of public places.

The cultural perception surrounding smoking has varied over time and from one place to another; holy and sinful, sophisticated and vulgar, and deadly health hazard. Well, call it what you will, the end result is that we all pay the price for smoking. Whether in the form of ill-health, the loss of human resource, or the redirecting of otherwise needed funds by the State to deal with some health or environmental issue arising from smoking. A common argument opposing government prohibitions on public smoking is that they violate the rights of individuals and property owners. It is sometimes argued that smoking by adults is a personal lifestyle choice. However, that lifestyle argument regarding the right to smoke as one pleases could be countered by another’s lifestyle right to breathe smokeless air, especially if one accepts the medical research that second-hand smoke is harmful to one’s health. Inhaling smoke into the lungs, no matter the substance, has adverse effects on one’s health. It is said that one in every five American adults smoke cigarettes.

The well-proven health hazards of smoking have caused many countries to institute high taxes on Tobacco products, and anti-smoking campaigns are being launched every year in an attempt to curb smoking. Several countries, states, and cities have also imposed smoking bans in most public places. This is a huge step forward for public health and will help reduce deaths from cancer,...