Secondhand Smoke

Secondhand Smoke
Everybody’s life is precious and worthwhile. That is why laws and regulations are passed to protect people’s lives. We are not allowed to carry around guns and there are laws regulating who can posses them. Our water has to meet a certain criteria for us to drink it, and we are not exposed to water that can hurt us. We have the freedom of knowing that in America, our government is protecting us from things in public that can be potentially harmful, except for secondhand smoke.
Secondhand smoke is responsible for the death of thousands of Americans each year. According to the Peoria Youth Activism and Advocacy Training, in Illinois alone, “2900 people die each year from the effects of secondhand smoke; this is about eight people a day.” It would improve our health to go where ever we want without having to breathe other’s tobacco smoke. As a non-smoker, I support the new smoking ban because the band protects the health and increases the comfort of those who do not smoke. In this paper, I will highlight the negative side effects of secondhand smoke.
There are many negative side effects to secondhand smoke. One person’s smoking can affect the health of many people around them, even nonsmokers. According to the Secondhand Smoke Fact Sheet, “secondhand smoke contains many of the same toxic substances that the smoker inhales.” And that’s one of the reasons more and more people, young and old, seek out smoke free places.
As said by Michael Rabinoff in his book Ending the Tobacco Holocaust, “according to the Surgeon General, there are five major points concerning secondhand smoke.” First, secondhand smoke causes premature death and disease in children and adults who do not smoke. This is because secondhand smoke contains hundreds of chemicals known to be toxic or carcinogenic, including formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic ammonia, and hydrogen cyanide. Their second point is that children exposed to secondhand smoke are at an increased... [continues]

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