Everybody knows that smoking is bad for you. Since 1964, ten million people have died from tobacco related illness. Every year, 430,000 people die prematurely and smoking by pregnant women kills 140,000 fetuses during the same time period. In the United States alone, 1 out of every 5 deaths is smoking-related. Smoking kills more people each year than alcohol, drug abuse, car crashes, murders, suicides, fires, and AIDS combined. Every day, 3,000 children and teens start smoking and 1,000 of those kids will eventually die from tobacco related illness (Bailey 19). Smoking also is proven to cause a number of hazardous "side effects", including lung cancer, ulcers, peripheral artery disease, bladder cancer, pancreatic cancer, coronary heart disease, cancer of the mouth, throat and esophagus, cancer of the larynx, asthma, emphysema and strokes (Klier, Quiram , Siegel 71).
(http://www.ash.org)
If people choose to smoke, that is a personal decision with which nobody should be concerned. Smoking only effects smokers, so why should we care? It's like candy; if people want to eat junk food and get cavities, why should we care? We shouldn't. However, there have never been any reported cases of candy jumping from one person's mouth and into someone else's throat, greatly hindering their breathing and ultimately killing them. That is the argument behind smoking legislation; smoking is not just a product that harms the smoker, but it kills non-smokers. In fact second-hand smoke kills one American every six and a half minutes (Bailey 38). People are exposed so much to tobacco smoke that a child can smoke 102 packs of cigarettes by the age of 5, due to second-hand smoke (Bailey 39). The way cigarettes harm people are due to the 101 poisons in each cigarette (questionit.com), the 4,000 different chemical compounds (2,000 of which are toxic (Bailey 185)), and two main ingredients, tar and carbon monoxide. Tar is added to cigarettes for flavor, yet enters the alveoli (air cells) of the lungs and accumulates there. Carbon monoxide affects the blood's ability to distribute oxygen throughout the body and reducing the amount of oxygen it can carry (Klier, Quiram, Siegel 64).
Smoking is the number one killer in this country and kills thousands each year who do not smoke. Therefore, for the protection of non-smokers, legislation should exist that limits smokers' rights. Why should a non-smoker have to die because someone else has made the choice to smoke? This does not seem fair. Second-hand smoke victims have a case to sue smokers for some form of murder or manslaughter because they have acquired a terminal illness due to the actions of smokers.
The way cigarette smoke reaches other people is when the take on the form of ETS environmental tobacco smoke (Bailey 164). ETS is a known human carcinogen and is the most dangerous environmental pollutant most Americans face (Bender 23). It accounts for 85% of all indoor pollution, has the greatest potential to harm human health and cause death, is man-made and can be prevented. The only way to prevent ETS from claiming more lives is to ban smoking, for smoking is the only cause of ETS. It kills 82,700 people each year. Heart attacks and heart disease kill 45,000, atherosclerosis gets 20,000, other cancers take 11,000 lives, infants deaths reach 3,700 every year and lung cancer claims 3,000 every year. All these deaths are attributed to ETS (Bailey 164-167). The other cancers ETS is attributed to causing are breast, brain, cervical, sinus, leukemia, endocrine glands and thyroid (Bailey 182). Other diseases linked to second-hand smoke include pneumonia, bronchitis, tracheitis, middle ear infections, asthma attacks (1,000,000 per year) and bronchitis and emphysema (300,000 per year) (Bailey 182).
(http:www.no-smoke.org)
Smoking was banned from restaurants, bars and casinos in California in January, 1998. "This controversial law was not written, says state officials, to criminalize smoking, but to give employees a workplace free of second-hand smoke (Lamotte 1)." So far the law has been showing only positive health results. Just after the law went into effect, University of California San Francisco did a study of 53 city bartenders. Before the law was implemented, "three-quarters of these bartenders suffered from lung ailments. After the law, symptoms for 60 percent dropped away completely (Lefevre 1)." Said bartender Bill Hackim, "If you worked a weekend in here before (the law was implemented) you would be hoarse. It's not like that anymore (Lefevre 1)." Researcher Dr. Mark Eisner stated that "after the law went into effect we observed a substantial reduction in respiratory symptoms of eye, nose and throat irritation symptoms (Lefevre 1)." The study also showed that bartenders had 4% better lung capacity only four weeks after the smoking ban. A family friend of ours, Abe Tannenbaum, who is a restaurant manager, told me very happily that he could breathe better since the law went into effect and that his "overall health has definitely improved." (Tannenbaum)
Every year 1,900 to 5,600 babies in the U.S. die before their first birthday because of their mother's smoke. Every day around 10 million children under the age of six in the U.S. are exposed to tobacco smoke in public and private places (Bailey 184). This exposure causes: 2 million doctor visits for coughs; 2.2 million cases of otitis media, middle ear infections; 165,000 tympanotomy tube operations; 150,000-300,000 cases of respiratory infections in babies; 3 million lower respiratory tract infections in children; 15,000 hospitalizations for lower respiratory tract infections; 35% more influenza; for kids under five, 436,000 bronchitis and 190,000 pneumonia cases; 26,000 new cases of asthma; 529,000 doctor office visits for asthma; 26,000 newborn admissions to intensive care units; 1,900 deaths from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS; increased risk of brain tumors (Bailey 184-185). All of these have been created by others' decision to smoke, and it has resulted in the death and sickness of children throughout the country. These people have obviously not chosen to smoke, so there is no reason for them to be subjected to cigarette smoke every day and for them to get sick from it.
 This chart shows smoking trends, divded by age and ethnicity, among teenagers. |
 Debate smolders over effect of California smoking ban This article, published September 17, 1999 by Don Knapp, discusses the effect of California's ban on smoking in restaurants and bars. Very objective; presents evidence of both positive and results of the law. Tobacco may activate cancer-causing virus in body A medical article from lycos.com that shows significance evidence that smoking causes cancer. Study: Bartenders' health better after California smoking ban This article, published December 20, 1998 from San Francisco Bureau Chief Greg Lefevre, details how bartenders' health has improved a lot since California's smoking ban in bars and restaraunts went into effect.
California Health and Safety Codes. Section 104350-104480 These codes describe in detail as to why the state of California has decided to fight the tobacco industry and to hopefully totally eliminate smoking from society.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares as follows: (1) Smoking is the single most importanr source of preventable disease and premature death in California. (2) More than 30 percent of coronary heart disease cases are attributable to cigarette smoking. (3) More than 30 percent of all cancer deaths are attributable to smoking, with lung cancer now the leading killer in women as well as men. (4) Smoking is responsible for one-quarter of all deaths caused by fire. (5) Involuntary smoking is a cause of disease, including lung cancer, in healthy nonsmokers. (6) More than 80 percent of chronic obstructive lung diseases i ncluding emphysema and chronic bronchitis are attributable to smoking. (7) Tobacco-realted disease places a tremendous financial burden upon the persons with the disease, their families, the health care delivery system, and society as a whole. California spends five billion six hundred million dollars ($5,600,000,000) a year in direct and indirect costs on smoking-related illnesses. (8) The elimination of smoking is the number one weapon against four of the five leading causes of death in California. (9) Keeping children and young adults fom beginning to use tobacco and encouraging all persons to quit tobacco use shall be the highest priority in disease prevention for the State of California. More than 60 percent of all smokers begin smoking by the age of 14, and 90 percent begin by the age of 19. (10) The State of California shall pay leading role in promoting a smoke-free society by the year 2000 and thereby supporting the National Health Status Objectives for the year 2000 relating to smoking and tobacco use.
(2) Regulation of smoking in public places is necessary to protect, the health, safety, welfare, comfort, and evnironment of nonsmokers. (c) It is, therefore, the intent of the Legislature, in enacting this article, to eliminate smoking on public transportation vehicles.
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 "ASH is the nation's oldest and largest antismoking organization,
and the only one which regularly takes hard-hitting legal action to fight
smoking and to protect the rights of nonsmokers. It provides nonsmokers
with legal forms and valuable information to help them protect their rights,
and to learn more about the problems and costs of smoking to nonsmokers.
ASH's actions have helped prohibit cigarette commercials; ban smoking on
planes, buses, and many public places; and get the FDA to regulate cigarettes."
Americans For Nonsmokers' Rights This organization provides information concerning non-smokers rights, the dangers of second-hand smoke, links to smoke-free educational ads, the Tobacco Companies "dirty tricks", and ways to teach the Youth of America to resist smoking. A national medical association that deals with lung cancer. American Lung Association of California This organization discusses how smoking effects the environment, your health, and how all types of tobacco are dangerous. Their motto is as follows: "Working to prevent lung disease and promote lung health. When you can't breathe, nothing else matters."
"The Tobacco Wars American Style" This is self -proclaimed to be "Canada's largest anti-tobacco website. Since our country still seems to be in bed with Big Tobacco, we thought that you should all get a chance to browse all the good stuff coming from down-under." This site provides links to current and past lawsuits against Big Tobacco in the United States.
"Boycott starts January 1st 2000" "We are asking the world to boycott Philip Morris tobacco products. Philip Morris has been pretending to have children's interests in mind with their new advertising campaign. In reality a substantial amount of their advertising is in magazines with high readership in the 16 to 20 year old age group. Our demands are simple, we ask that you boycott Philip Morris tobacco products until they have removed all advertising from publications with high readership in the under 21 year old age group. Please vote in our online poll. Thank you for supporting our boycott. Gary Williams, President ButtOut.Net" This is an anti-tobacco industry website geared towards education folks on the hazards of tobacco. There is loads of information, including links to other websites.
This website is From Students Working Against Tobacco, part of Florida's groundbreaking anti-tobacco campaign.
This website is very similar to TheTruth.com. It provides startling facts about smoking and the whole US Tobacco Industry. |