Example Of Essay On Should Public Smoking Be Legal

When I see someone lighting a cigar, or any tobacco product, the first question that comes to my mind is, why the person is doing this? I have three concerns. The first one is why the person wants to harm self. Second, I am concerned about myself. I don’t smoke, so why do I have to bear the smoke filled air? Third is about the other people around in the public places. Since the person who smokes, chooses to do it deliberately, so we can safely leave him out of the discussion. But if we consider the plight of all others, smoking should be banned in public.
Let us first examine that why people smoke in public. I have observed that young boys and girls indulge in smoking either because of peer pressure, or, for adventure. In any case, smoking has the cool appeal. So, for making a style statement, and, to stand out from the crowd, they smoke in public. There are some others, who burn cigarettes to relieve stress. How a cigarette does that, is a question worth pondering over. But I have observed a friend, who would smoke just two to three cigarettes in a day. But some days when there is burden, or pressure of work, he smokes very frequently. When I confronted him, he confirmed the behavior. With the pressure of work and family, more people smoke in the public.
When somebody smokes, it is difficult to bear the smoky clouds, especially if the wind is moving towards you. Many a time, I have to cover my face with handkerchief. The smoke is irritating and causes headache. It is not only my problem. My aunt suffers excruciating headache whenever she encounters a smoke cloud in public. The problem is escalated for the ones suffering from respiratory diseases, such as, asthma. Once I was sitting in a park. Though it was a no-smoking zone, a guy lit his cigarette. And suddenly, a lady had an asthmatic attack. It took me some time to figure out the reason. The smoke from the cigarette had caused that.
Further, to my utter surprise, the guy threw the burning cigarette butt on the grass. The result was that some grass blades burned. Luckily, another guy dozed off the sparks in time. Otherwise it could have destroyed the lush green grass of the park. So, for health reasons, and, for saving the ignitable material that catches fire easily, public smoking should not be allowed.
Why should other people suffer, or, bear a smoker’s burden, at the first place? We come across so many messages informing about the negative impacts of smoking on health. The incidents I have cited are of a low scale. But these could also result in a larger damage to the lady suffering from the respiratory disease. The public places have all types of people, the elderly, the pregnant ladies, and the children. All of these are at a relatively higher risk of exposure to the disease causing pollutants of smoke. They are more sensitive, as immune system is weaker in case of the elderly and the children, whereas in case of pregnant ladies, the unborn child is at risk. For no fault of theirs, why should all of them be punished?
There are other reasons too. Once, an old guy threw the burning cigarette butt on the pavement. Some young kids were playing around. Out of curiosity, a kid picked up the butt, and, burnt his hand. The other children also got scared. This incidence, however, forced the old guy to drop this habit. In another case, a passerby in a market threw the burning butt in litter. It immediately caught fire, since it comprised mostly paper. The fire grew so big, that a fire brigade had to be called. It did cause inconvenience to the visitors to that market, and a chaos among the shoppers. Luckily, timely intervention saved major devastation in the market, and there were no casualties. However, this brings to fore the lurking danger of carelessness of smoking in public.
Another reason that public smoking should be prohibited is its impact on children. Once I saw a young mother having tough time explaining her son, the negative health impacts attached to smoking. The child would see one guy or the other lighting the cigarette, and, would ask her mother to buy one for him too. And the reason was simple, he wanted to look cool like those youngsters, and have fun in life. He too wanted to impress his peers the same way. Young children want to emulate the elders. Since they are too young, they are not able to weigh the pros and cons of a practice. He asked his mother if it was so bad, why were grown up people indulging in the behavior. For children, style is the ultimate appeal. It is difficult to convince them by simple reasoning, when elders are also indulging in the behavior in full public view. So, smoking should be prohibited so as not to send the wrong signals to our future generations.
One counter-argument may be that if children start smoking just for the sake of emulating the elder generation, so they would leave it when they understand the ill impacts of smoking. But I have observed that it is not easy to do so. Smoking is a kind of addiction. Many of my friends, who took to smoking for fun, have grave problems. They want to quit it, but missing a few cigarettes causes serious withdrawal symptoms, such as, headaches. Getting addicted is easy, but getting off such a habit requires professional help. Only one of them could get off it, with the help of rehabilitation centre.
There are other concerns too related to smoking, such as, deteriorating the ambience and air quality because of the smoke pollutants. The public, at large, bears the brunt. Smoking at a public place, is like feeding smoke forcibly to the passive smokers, and the sensitive groups, who are at a higher risk of exposure. Public smoking, therefore, should not be legalized in any way. It is required to save the negative social impact on future generations, and, to create a healthy ambience, and, a clean environment, which is the right of all.