Smokers portray a bad example; as we know children are very easily influenced in their growing stages. Young children are curious as they are growing up. Young children often mimic or follow the actions of adult figures in their lives or of those people in their surrounding environment. Adolescents and pre-teens will most likely try to imitate the actions of their parents, family members and friends. Like the famous saying goes "monkey see, monkey do." It also goes for teenagers, they want to try it, they want to see how it feels, and most of the time teenagers will start smoking and creating the habit because of their parents or a close family member or a friend, because to them it looks "cool, different or new." Teenagers think that smoking makes them mature, often time not really understanding the potential health risks. "Cigarettes contain more than 4,000 chemical compounds. Approximately 50 of these chemical compounds are known to be cancer-related"(Lazarevic, Nikolic, Stosic, Milutinovic, Videnovic, & Bogdanovic. 2012). .
It is safe to say that most smokers have been made aware of how harmful smoking can be, and consciously decide to ignore the apparent health risks. It becomes unfair when non-smokers are put into an environment where they do not have an opportunity to avoid second hand smoke. It is not right for non-smokers to be indirectly or unconsciously subjected to a pollutant that is known to cause cancer and disease. It is apparent that most people who smoke in public areas do not care for their own health, much less the health of those in their surrounding area. That is why laws should be put into place that protect people in public areas. "Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is estimated to kill 600,000 people world-wide each year through increased heart disease, respiratory ailments, asthma, and lung cancer" (Mattias Oberg et al.