Persuasive Speech

Specific purpose: to persuade the audience that secondhand smoke is harmful. Claim: Smoking should be banned from all public locations such as schools and hospitals, because of its danger to others. Do you know someone who smokes or do you smoke? Have you ever smoked in front of another person before or even worse a child? My interest in secondhand smoke arose when i was younger and my dad smoked. I was about 8 or 9 years old, however I lost interest until last semester when I researched a paper for English and discovered that secondhand smoke can be very deadly. Secondhand smoke is also known as environmental tobacco smoke. SHS “contains 250 toxic chemicals, including more than 50 that can cause cancer” (CDC). These chemicals include “arsenic, benzene, nickel, vinyl chloride (substance used on plastics)” (NCI). Health effects also arise from secondhand smoke. For children who are exposed it puts them at greater risk for such things as, Sudden infant death syndrome, asthma, middle ear infections and residuary problems. According to the Center for Disease Control exposure to
I walk around campus a lot and I see signs everywhere saying no smoking 500ft form doorways, but people still do it and as a student walking by and inhaling the smoke everyday is not good. I feel like the schools and other public settings where others are involved should put a ban on smoking. I believe that for a smoker the choice is theirs and I shouldn’t have to suffer with them by just merely walking by. Secondhand smoke is clearly a threat to both non smoking adults and children, so I hope we can take more actions to protect them. I also hope this speech will make smokers more aware of their surroundings and who they will be