Although many believe the issue of smoking to be a controversial issue currently, in reality, the issue has been present since the settlement of America. For instance, tobacco was …show more content…
If the government continues to declare public smoking legal, non-smokers ' health will be at serious risk as a result of the behavioral decisions made by others. As supporters of smoking bans, such as Rutherford, argue, non-smokers do not deserve to have their own health harmed by the behaviors of others. Therefore, millions of lives are detrimentally affected by secondhand smoke and the only solution to the problem is to implement smoking bans. Thus, secondhand smoke is proven to negatively affect the lives American 's and, therefore, requires government intervention in order to preserve the health of Americans.
Even though many believe smoking to be a major cause of health problems facing individuals in society, others acknowledge the many health dangers present in society far more toxic than smoke. For example, one author claims the following:
The first principle of toxicology is that the dose makes the poison. We are exposed to thousands of natural poisons and carcinogens in our diets every day, but they don 't hurt us because the exposure is too small to overcome our bodies ' natural defenses. The same is true of second-hand smoke. No victim of cancer, heart disease, etc. can "prove" his or her cancer or heart disease was caused by exposure to secondhand smoke.
(“Smoking Bans and the Tobacco …show more content…
One study, consisting of data from over 40,000 schools, proved smoking to be a naturally decreasing activity as time progresses. For instance, the study found that the percentage of students admitting they had smoked 30 days prior to the study dropped from 10.6 percent to 9.6 percent (Espejo). As proven by this study, just in one month, the number of young smokers declined without a law being enforced and, therefore, a law to diminish the prevalence of smoking in society proves to be unnecessary. One of the main causes for the natural decrease of smoking in society is the changing view individuals possess for smoking as time progresses. For instance, one writer claims there has proven to be a dramatic increase in people "preferring to date nonsmokers (currently around 80% of teens say they do)" and, furthermore, "strongly disliking being around people who are smoking and believing that smoking is a dirty habit" as opposed to previous times (Espejo). As society changes, the views of individuals on smoking has changed from a normal, acceptable activity, to degrading. As individual views change, the prevalence of smoking is dramatically decreasing. Around 88% of Americans claim to despise the presence of smoke, even smokers themselves, which shows the negative reputation smoking is naturally