Why the United States Needs to Ban Smoking in All Public Places

According to the US Surgeon General Steven Galson, secondhand smoke causes premature death in children and adults that do not smoke. This is because there are over 4000 chemical compounds in secondhand smoke, 200 are known to be poisonous and over 60 are known carcinogens or cancer causing chemicals. Additionally, the US Surgeon General has found that almost 40% of non-smokingchildren and adults are exposed to secondhand smoke in public facilities that later leads to health complications.

According to the American Cancer Society, secondhand smoke is the third leading cause of preventable death in the United States. For those that do survive, they face some or all of the following: asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, respiratory infections, ear infections, lung cancer, heart disease, cognitive impairment and many other things. Secondhand smoke has also been classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a known cause of cancer.

The United States Surgeon General has found that there is no safe level of exposure to second hand smoke. For example, brief exposure has been linked to an increased risk for heart attacks. This is because short exposures to second hand smoke causes blood platelets to become sticker, damages the lining of blood vessels, decreases coronary flow velocity reserves and reduces heart rate variability.

And, whereas it has been shown that eliminating smoking in indoor spaces fully protects nonsmokers from exposure to secondhand smoke and that separating smokers from nonsmokers, cleaning the air, and ventilating buildings cannot eliminate exposures of nonsmokers to secondhand smoke. As theHealth Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: A Report of the Surgeon General, put it, air cleaning systems can remove only large particles, not the smaller particles or gases found in secondhand smoke. Also, it has been shown that routine operation of ventilation systems actually spread and distribute the secondhand smoke throughout a building. Even the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, the preeminent U.S. body on ventilation issues, has concluded that ventilation technology cannot be relied on to control health risks from secondhand smoke exposure.

The only way to truly protect the health of our citizens from secondhand smoke is to ban all smoking in public places.

Some opponents of this legislation may argue that eliminating smoking in public places would cost the tobacco industry many jobs. However, this is not the case, as the industry would simply shift their focus to other types of tobacco that are not smoked and are therefore safer to the general public, such as chewing tobacco.

By prohibiting smoking in all public places, we will greatly reduce the number of people suffering from the horrors of secondhand smoke.