These days, it’s no secret that smoking is dangerous to your health. Likewise, second-hand smoke (the smoke that is given off from the burning end of a cigarette, pipe or cigar or the smoke that is exhaled from a smoker’s lungs) is also recognized for contributing to a wide range of adverse health effects including cancer and asthma.
Second hand smoke impacts the health of people who aren’t smoking but are inhaling the smoke due to their proximity to one who is. In an attempt to prevent injury from second-hand smoke, many states in the US have already banned smoking in restaurants, bars and other public areas. Recently though, several cities have started limiting it even further, placing restrictions on smoking in outdoor public areas such as parks and patios of restaurants and bars. Furthermore, in California, beginning in 2009 statewide, smoking in the presence of a minor 18 years or younger while driving will be a misdemeanor offense (referenced: Wikipedia).
The ethical questions are:
- Do these smoking bans infringe on the freedoms of smokers?
- Isn’t smoking a personal choice they have made and, as such, shouldn’t they have the right to participate in this choice in public? If not indoors, then outdoors at least?
- Isn’t it oppressive and tyrannical to enforce a smoking ban in public, outdoor areas?
- When driving in a car (even with a minor) is it not within one’s personal freedom to smoke?
- Should the government really have the right to dictate what can and cannot be done in privacy of one’s own vehicle?
- If there is no DIRECT harm being done to others, should the government really have the right to limit the activities of its citizens?
These questions address valid issues when it comes to smoking in public.
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