Most kids think about fitting in and being "cool" or even being "popular" or just plane old, "What will he or she think of me?" Saying "no" to smoking isn't the only decision that people need to make. Saying "no" to being around people who smoke or even going to places where there will be smoking, is an important peer pressure decision that involves secondhand smoking. Just because your not smoking doesn't mean you"re not in danger. If you think that you might lose a friend over a peer pressure situation such as smoking, you might want to stop and think about what a friendship is. A true friend should respect your decision, and a lot of the time it takes one person to say "no" which makes others actually realize they may feel the same way. (PBSkids.org) But with smoking "over 16,000 children ages 9 to 14, have been more likely to experiment with cigarettes because of teen peer pressure," according to, Dr. Alison Field of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. (Center for the Advancement of Health) Not only do your peers have an influence on your decision to smoke, their decisions also reflect on yours, even if you .
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don't smoke. If they chose to smoke then you"re still at a risk of breathing in their secondhand smoke, which down the road could seriously harm you. .
To help protect these situations the state is also taking steps to help work with the needs of all citizens but also making laws to protect them. "By raising the standards of New York State's Clean Air Act, we will help protect children, non-smokers and employees from unnecessary secondhand exposure in working places." Says Senator Charles Fuschillo, one of the members of the Legislature's leading proponents of a ban. (D and C 3/23/03 #1) "Monroe County was one of the leaders in the mid-1900's in establishing strict laws for smoking in public places.