When you walk into a restaurant you are almost immediately asked, "Smoking or Nonsmoking section?" Not once have I ever heard "Toking or Nontoking section" or "Snorting or Nonstorting section". I find this ironic because smoking is just as addictive and unhealthy as cocaine and marijuana, both of which are illegal drugs. In fact smoking actually kills more per year than illegal drugs. And unlike most illegal drugs cigarettes can also directly effect the health of the nonsmokers. People who have chosen to smoke have accepted the unhealthy risk of the drug. However, Nonsmokers have not chosen to risk the hazards involved with smoking and therefore should not be at risk to these hazards.
Second hand smoke from cigarettes is just as damaging as smoke inhaled by users. The amount of second-hand smoke inhaled by the typical nonsmoker is equivalent to one cigarette smoked a day, even that amount can be harmful to a person's health. A person living with a spouse who smokes has a thirty-percent higher chance of getting lung cancer. Parents who smoke force their children to breathe the fumes every day. Seventeen percent of lung cancer is attributed to people who grew up with parents who were smokers. Children of smokers have a lower birth weight and are often less intelligent. Researchers have also discovered that smoking by pregnant women causes the deaths of over 5,000 infants and 115,000 miscarriages yearly. The government has chosen not to place a ban on a drug that puts even the nonusers at risk to health problems. People who do not smoke must always be alert of toxic cigarette fumes that may be in anywhere around them. Therefore cigarettes should be banned, not only to stop the health risks for smokers but also for nonsmokers.
Every year cigarettes kill over 420,00 people and more than that suffer from cancer and circulatory and respiratory system diseases each year due to cigarettes. Smoking has several harmful effects on the body.