Banning Smoking in Public

Every year, millions of people die from diseases caused by smoking. This is a terrible fact, and while banning smoking completely would be almost impossible, we should at least strive to ban smoking in public areas, such as subway platforms and in or around schools and hospitals. Smoking not only does a lot of damage to the health of the smoker, but people around him or her are exposed to the cigarette’s secondhand smoke, which hurts both them and the environment.
         Wherever we go, we usually want a clean and comfortable environment. Even though Beijing is not one of the cleanest cities in China, people should still strive for a more comfortable, and less harmful, way of life. But when a cigarette is lit, it sends a cloud of smoke into the air around us, polluting the air with not only its smell, but also the chemicals within it. The smell is so strong that very few people are willing to stand close to a smoker.
         Smoking in general does a lot of damage to the human body. It harms the lungs the most, but can also damage other organs, and makes the smoker’s teeth go bad and their breath smell awful. Why, with all this information about the dangers of smoking, do people continue to smoke? The answer is simple: smoking is an addiction. Once people get used to smoking, they cannot give it up easily; while there are those who have quit successfully, there are others who find it too hard to quit and just give up, despite the advice of others. They abandon themselves, losing all caring for their own wellbeing.
                   It is not only smokers themselves who are affected by their habit, but also the people around them. The dangers of breathing in secondhand smoke are only slightly less than actually smoking a cigarette. When you breathe in the smoke from someone else’s cigarette, you have just as much risk of having the same health problems. Especially in public places, where the smoke has very few places to go, cigarette smoke is hard to avoid. Pregnant women are especially in danger when breathing in secondhand smoke; the smoke can get into not only their lungs, but also the lungs of their unborn children, which are not yet fully formed. This will lead to the child being born with a weakened body.
                   Smoking in general is a horrible behavior to pick up, but those who choose to smoke in public places frequented by children and others with health problems are simply being rude, on top of the health risks they are putting on themselves. Public places are just that: PUBLIC. So let’s make a contribution to ban smoking in public altogether!