Have you ever seen people smoke in public areas? Do you like this behavior? Nowadays, smoking has become a common phenomenon in public areas. Smokers are frequently present in public places, such as restaurants, railway stations, and hotels. Since most public areas do not have a place for smoking, many smokers smoke in places where there are many people. However, nonsmokers hate this situation. As a result, more and more calls for banning smoking appear, based on the belief that smoking will bring negative impacts on their health. Smoking will cause so many harmful effects that it should be illegal in public areas.

Smoking should be illegal in public places since it will affect the smokers’ health conditions. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that in the late 1990s there were approximately four million tobacco-caused deaths per year worldwide. This estimation increased to approximately five million in 2003 and six million in 2011 and was expected to reach eight million per year by 2030. This is because lighting cigarettes emits several harmful and toxic chemical compounds, such as nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide. These chemicals will damage people’s respiratory system and nervous system, and cause diseases such as cancer, leukemia, and diabetes. Moreover, since cigarettes also contain toxic chemicals, people will easily be addicted to smoking. Therefore, though people know it is harmful to smoke, it is difficult for people to give it up. The harm of smoking is obvious. Since people spend most of a day in public areas, for instance schools and offices, forbidding smoking in these areas can alleviate smokers’ addiction. Therefore, people will be able to be less exposed to harmful chemicals and the potential risks. In this way, the risk of getting diseases can be reduced and people’s health improved.

Some people argue that smoking in public areas is one of human rights. Therefore, smoking should be allowed in public places. However, from my perspective, allowing smoking in public areas will also damage nonsmokers’ interests, because smoking not only does harm to smokers, but also does the same to people around smokers. Research shows that 1.2 million people died prematurely from secondhand smoking. It is because smokers will only inhale in 10% of the harmful chemicals, the rest will be emitted to air and breathed in by people around them. We could conclude from this that smoking in public areas will violate others’ right of breathing clean air and will affect other people’s health conditions, especially for those who work in public areas. If they are exposed to harmful gases for a long time, they may contract the same diseases as smokers. So, smoking should be illegal for the consideration of other people’s health and rights.

Many countries have banned smoking in public places, but since it is not effective enough, smoking should be illegal in public places so that this phenomenon will disappear. For example, a ban was introduced in 2011 in China, which is home to one-third of the global smoking population, barring smoking in hotels, restaurants, and other indoor public spaces. However, because the ban does not cover smoking in workplaces, nor does it specify penalties, it was not effective at all, and it is still common to see people smoke in public areas. Only if the penalties to public smoking are specified will the situation be improved. Since government will specify the penalties and most people are afraid of doing illegal acts, make smoking illegal can greatly improve the situation.

Smoking should be illegal in public places, due to its various disadvantages. It harms people’s health and gets people addicted to it because of its special ingredients. As a result, people cannot give it up and keep smoking although they know its negative effects. Smoking harms you, and people around you as well. Let’s make smoking disappear in public areas, and make the air clean again at the same time.