Banning Smoking

This week’s Hot Topic is about banning smoking in all public places.

I am in favor of banning smoking in all public places for many reasons. 

Firstly, to my mind, it is widely known that second hand smoke can affect and consequently harm your surroundings. For instance, having people smoking freely in public areas can disturb children and nonsmoker parents that have to tolerate the smoke.Moreover, it is claimed that smoking in public places such as parks and offices can strongly affect people that suffer from respiratory diseases. Furthermore, such people have to not only put up with their poor heath but they also have to tolerate the deterioration of their condition by some careless smoker.

Of course, there are those who argue against banning smoking in public areas due to the fact that it violates their rights as smokers. While this is partly correct, it is my firm belief that before thinking about ourselves we have to think about the basic civil rights. With this I mean that everyone is free to do whatever they want unless it harms others.

In the end I would like to state that this is merely my opinion and that everyone is free to express theirs.  But in order to be prepared for the worst…