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Smoking Bans -- Justification Cigarette Essay

Some states like New York and California have banned smoking in bars and restaurants and in outdoor public places such as parks (Harris, 2012). That also makes a lot of sense because when customers sit next to smokers, they have no choice but to inhale their smoke. Various smokers' rights groups have objected to these types of bans and complained that their rights are being interfered with (Harris, 2012). It is difficult to view that position as reasonable because there are no restrictions on smoking except where other people have to breathe their smoke whether they want to or not. Because of the health risks of second hand smoke, those restrictions are perfectly reasonable. The right of nonsmokers not to breathe dangerous cigarette smoke if they do not want to is obviously greater than the right of smokers to smoke anywhere they want to smoke.

Smoking is a habit that harms both smokers and other people around them. It cannot be viewed as strictly a "personal choice" for several reasons. It causes more preventable illness than any other cause of disease. That means it is a public economic issue. Smoking also endangers nonsmokers directly because they have no choice but to breathe smoke if...

Smokers should have the right to smoke if they want to, but not anywhere that their smoking could cause harm to other people who do not choose to smoke. Smoking bans and other types of restrictions against smoking anywhere but on private property where it cannot harm or bother anybody else are completely justified.
Works Cited

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). Smoking and Tobacco Use: Health

Effects of Cigarette Smoking. Retrieved online:

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/effects_cig_

smoking/

Harris, Elizabeth a. "Wanting to Smoke at Home, and Facing Hurdles in Apartment

Hunt." The New York Times, May 21, 2012. Retrieved online:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/nyregion/for-smokers-apartment-hunting-is-even-tougher.html?_r=0

O'Neill, Xana and Lite, Jordan. Real Estate Companies Making it Tougher for Smokers in Their Homes; the New York Daily News, March 30, 2008.

Retrieved online: http://articles.nydailynews.com/2008-03-

30/news/17893730_1_smoke-free-city-smoke-free-homes-bars-and-restaurants

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). Smoking and Tobacco Use: Health

Effects of Cigarette Smoking. Retrieved online:

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/effects_cig_

smoking/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/nyregion/for-smokers-apartment-hunting-is-even-tougher.html?_r=0
Retrieved online: http://articles.nydailynews.com/2008-03-
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