Public Smoking (Blog 9)

Upon reading Weston’s blog on banning public smoking I was in favor of having a smoke free environment for everyone. I have tried cigars to find they are incredibly horrific tasting. I know that some people have reasons to why they smoke: I was peer pressured, it calms my nerves, habit, ect., but the simple truth is that some people do not wish to harm their health and safety. From the National Cancer Institute , second hand smoke causes cancer, even in low levels of exposure to second hand smoke.

The people who are smoking are using their right to smoke and ruin their health but when their smoke comes in contact with others they have no right to put smoke into others lungs.

Even a laissez-faire approach to smoking is harmful to people who wish to smoke and people who do not. If there is one restaurant in a town and it offers smoking, where does one go to eat food with out people smoking?

I can relate this to Mayfair mall in Milwaukee. There were incidents where people under the age of 18 were causing problems, creating a safety hazard to everyone who works and uses the mall. Now people under the age of 18 are not allowed in the mall on the weekends at certain times with out a someone over the age of 21. Now I know this is a different scenario but it applies to safety.

People should be free to smoke till their lungs disintegrate but the fact remains that that second hand smoke causes cancer. This is an issue of where public safety should be above the pleasure of smoking a cigarette.