Think of others (Should smoking be banned in public places?)

Member Name: josollsam

Product:	Should smoking be banned in public places?
Date:	13/03/03 (152 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Healthy children

Disadvantages: None

Why should smoking be banned in public places? Because children frequent public places. How can we continue to tell our children ‘smoking is wrong, don’t do it’ when as we are saying this to them someone walks past them blowing smoke and dropping fag ends right in front of them?

Banning cigarette adverts is now in place to help stop the occurrence of new smokers so lets ask smokers to refrain from advertising smoking for the same reason. Please don’t smoke in public because we don’t want children to think that smoking is acceptable.
The WHO has become so concerned with the impact of passive smoking on children that they actively campaign for the rights for children to grow up in an environment free from cigarette smoke.

I have no wish for my children, or myself, to be inhaling someone elses smoke, whether it is first hand, i.e. sidestreamed from the end of someones cigarette or second-hand, someone elses left-overs – smoke ejected from their lungs. In both circumstances cigarette smoke from someone else going into our lungs can cause the following:

Heart disease
Stroke
Lung cancer
Nasal cancer

And can cause the following in children:
Low birthweight
Cot death (SIDS)

Middle ear infection
Asthma (induction & exacerbation)
Bronchitis (induction & exacerbation)
Pneumonia (induction & exacerbation)

And other illnesses linked to passive smoking are:

Spontaneous abortion (miscarriage)
Adverse impact on learning and behavioural development in children
Meningococcal infections in children
Cancers and leukaemia in children
Asthma exacerbation in adults
Exacerbation of cystic fibrosis
Decreased lung function
Cervical cancer

So please refrain from telling me about ‘your rights’ as a smoker when you deny non-smokers their basic human right of remaining healthy.

As for the economic ar
gument that some smokers like to pull out and ‘air’, take a look at some facts:

The Government earned just under £10 million in revenue from cigarettes (year 2000 figures) of which just under £7 million was tobacco duty and just under £2 million was in VAT. However, treating smoking related illnesses and diseases costs the NHS around £1.5 BILLION a year. These figures include the cost of GP consultations, prescriptions and hospital admissions. On average 9,500 hospital beds are occupied EVERY DAY by patience admitted to hospital being treated for smoke related illnesses and diseases. Aside from this do smokers consider other state paid expenses such as sickness and invalidity benefits, widows pensions and other social security benefits for smokers dependents? And what of the lost working day to the British industry? An estimated 34 million days every year from smoke related sick leave.

Going back to my original concern – children. Around half of all British children are exposed to tobacco smoke in the home. It has been estimated that in the UK 17,000 children under the age of 5 are admitted into hospital each year with illnesses caused from the affects of passive smoking.

Approximately half of all children in the UK are exposed to tobacco smoke in the home. Young children are particularly vulnerable to the health impact of passive smoking. In its 1992 report, “Smoking and the Young”, the Royal College of Physicians estimated that 17,000 children under the age of five are admitted to hospital every year in the UK as a result of illnesses resulting from passive smoking.


The life-costs. 120,000 brits die each year from illnesses and diseases caused by smoking cigarettes. This accounts for one fifth of all deaths.

As for the most pathetic of all excuses for smoking – ‘but I enjoy it’, what a load of rubbish. No-one can possibly enjoy poisoning oneself. Your body does no
t enjoy being unfit, unhealthy, stinky and addicted. The only thing that you enjoy is the relief at feeding and counter acting the craving for nicotine.

The quicker the smoker admits the truth and faces up to the fact that smoking is a killer, a drain on resources and a drug addiction the better. Maybe then they can stop being so selfish and self righteous and quit.

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