Smoking_Is_Unacceptable

January 21, 2009 Put It Out Or It’ll Put You Out Banning smoking will not violate a person’s rights; it will benefit the health in American society and eliminate the biggest leading cause of death in preventable diseases. Smoking is the action of inhaling and exhaling smoke from a pipe, cigar, or cigarette. It is a filthy habit that should be identified as intolerable by the people and the government. Smoking is a major health hazard in America. Therefore, smoking should be banned because it causes several life threatening diseases; people should not be allowed to do anything that damages themselves or others significantly, and it will benefit America overall. First of all, the consequences of smoking are exceptionally significant. If smoking was illegal in the United States, numerous diseases would decline in numbers as well as save countless of lives. As stated by experts Lukachko and Whelan, “Cigarette smoking is a principal cause of cancer of the esophagus, lungs, larynx, lip, mouth, pharynx, tongue, kidney, pancreas, urinary bladder, uterine cervix and many others.” So accordingly, smoking is a potentially dangerous drug habit that endangers people’s lives. Pursuant to the quote, the outcomes of smoking have been proven to be substantially severe and at a high risk factor as well. From Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy G. Thompson pronounced that smoking induces a harmful impact on virtually every organ in the body, causing many diseases and also diminishes health in general. Thus, smoking has dramatically countless amounts of risks for fatal diseases and also drains the overall health of a smoker even if he is not ill. So clearly, the entirety of all the often fatal health consequences of smoking prevail over the obvious benefits of it and, in addition, it is proven to be the greatest cause for preventable diseases in America; so why not just prevent it' Secondly, people should never possess the right to do anything that will bestow harm to themselves and, most crucially, other people around them. As the writer of Secondhand Smoke Is Harmful, John R. Garrison, states, “Unlike the dangers of cigarette use, the threat that secondhand smoke presents is especially insidious because it affects the health of adults and children who cannot always protect themselves: Children do not choose to live in smoke-filled homes, and nonsmoking adults can't control the smoky air they breathe at work.” So consequently, secondhand smoke is unfair to non-smokers and also violates their rights. In agreement with Garrison, a non-smoker’s rights supersede that of the minority smoker’s—ergo the diplomatic saying, “Majority rules”. From Science Stokes the Tobacco Debate, by Sheryl Stölberg from the Los Angeles Times, “Of each year's secondhand-smoke deaths, 3,000 are attributed to lung cancer, 12,000 to other cancers and 37,000 to heart disease, according to the Coalition on Smoking OR Health, a nonprofit group formed by the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society.” Thus, it reveals that smokers put others into potentially harmful situations and have the ability to even kill faultless victims. For this incentive, smoking can be characterized as a plague or an infestation that not only slowly kills the user but along the way, also infects all those around the person as he exhales the poisonous smoke “puff” by “puff”. Furthermore, if smokers assume that what they are doing is their right to freedom of expression then they must also understand that if this particular undertaking involves the damage to themselves and particularly to other innocent people, then that right must be taken away from them just as they were stripped of their rights to use illegal drugs, such as marijuana, in America as well. Finally, it will benefit America overall as well as help it prosper. Writers of Smoking Causes Significant Health Problems, Lucachko and Whelan say, “The government currently estimates that about 430,000 deaths occur each year in the United States as a result of cigarette smoking.” So as you can see, cutting out smoking will eliminate close to half a million deaths, therefore, saving lives. It will benefit the United States politically because of the clearing of a major issue, and it will make an impact on the health in today’s society due to less preventable deaths; especially in today’s health. There is also the fact that smoking costs the government too much money. USA Today declares, “The industry spent $13.4 billion in marketing in 2005, according to the Federal Trade Commission. That's $25 for every $1 the states spent on smoking prevention.” The fact of the matter is that the war on smoking wastes money and that the government has wanted smoking gone since day one, although it is not so simple—but it could be rational. Also, the American Cancer Society states, “Death-related productivity losses from smoking among workers cost the US economy more than $96 billion yearly.” So, since the smoking issue is too much of a burden on everybody’s shoulders, it would be magnificent if smoking was banned; which will result in the prosperity of America. In America today, people are faced with the steadily rising issues of obesity, heart failures, and the epidemic of smoking; so why not illegalize one of the biggest factors for health issues, political issues, and government spending' In conclusion, smoking should be prohibited in America. It causes countless fatal diseases, it would not violate a person’s rights, and because above all it will promote success in America. May it be the health consequences, the increased amount of money to be distributed by the government, or even the benefit of the individuals that help influence people to think for the benefits of banning smoking, but smoking should not remain for the sole purpose of pleasure and temporary relaxation. So clearly, this ill-favored epidemic must be contained by the means of making it completely illegal in America. Thus, in short, the war on smoking has been harsh and sorrowful but, if it remains it will simply continue to cost our society too many deaths, too much money, and too many tears.