Smoking is a practice in which a substance, most commonly tobacco or cannabis, is burned and the smoke is tasted or inhaled. The most common method of smoking today is through cigarettes, primarily industrially manufactured but also hand-rolled from loose tobacco and rolling paper. Today most are more aware about how bad smoking is for our health. Smoking should be banned or restricted in almost all public places because it has been shown to be dangerous to health, it can reduced health care costs, it will save lives if banned, it would reduce smoking during pregnancy and keep young adults from wanting to try it.
Point of View.
Smoking should be banned because it causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and pregnancy complications. Every year 350,000 people die from tobacco related illnesses (Boddewyn., J.J, 1986). Smoking is directly responsible for more than 85% of all deaths from lung cancer. Cigarettes are lethal and addictive. According to the general surgeon, the nicotine in cigarettes is as addictive as heroin or cocaine. Nothing is benefited from smoking and nonsmokers are harmed from the people who decide to smoke. Breathing is not a choice, but smoking is, and this is why smoking cigarettes should be banned. .
Defined words: Addictive, Nicotine .
Data.
The effects of smoking and second hand smoking include increased risk of heart disease, cancer, emphysema, and other diseases (Wilson, 2012). .
Prevalence of current smoking in 2009 was highest among non-Hispanic whites (22.2%), intermediate among non-Hispanic blacks (21.3%), and lowest among Hispanics (14.5%) and Asians (12.0%). (Peres, 2014).
Banning smoking may reduce health care costs (Bonneux, M.D., 1997).
Banning cigarettes can save lives (Borland, 2006).
Smoking during pregnancy accounts for an estimated 20 to 30 percent of low birth weight babies (American Lung Association, 2015).
Tobacco advertising also plays a role in encouraging young people to begin smoking (US Department of Health and Human Services, 1994).
