There is nothing worse than not being able to eat because of someone smoking at a nearby table. "Many smokers contribute their addiction to smoking as a psychological addiction," says Jenks (355). If smoking is such a psychological and physical addiction, why is it so hard for smokers to smoke in the proper places? They should be able to control their addiction. Second-hand smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, two hundred poisonous, and forty-three can cause cancer. The EPA estimates that !.
second-hand smoke causes approximately three thousand lung cancer deaths and thirty-seven thousand heart disease deaths in non-smokers a year. Second-hand smoke should be the major reason for banning public smoking.
Another reason why public smoking should be outlawed is that it causes air pollution in enclosed areas. People have proposed many solutions to help the effects of smoke on the atmosphere. The easiest way to help air pollution is to ban smoking in public areas. Companies have produced these high tech ventilation systems that supposedly clean the air. These systems cost a lot of money. There is strong evidence that air pollution and cigarette smoke affect respiratory health. Robertson says, "Nicotine levels in a cubic meter of air range from 8.6 micrograms in open offices where .
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smoking is allowed to 1.3 micrograms where smoking was restricted and 0.3 micrograms where smoking was banned" (962). Robertson also says, "Nicotine exposure of 2.3 micrograms for forty years posed risks so high that the US regulatory agencies have almost always acted to reduce them" (962). Smoking is not the only major issue in air pollution but should be looked at extensively. .
There are people that have different opinions to the ban on public smoking. "It is not unreasonable to separate smoking and non-smoking areas or to designate areas for smoking," says Robertson. "However, it is important that such designated areas be correctly ventilated" (961).