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Should Outdoor Smoking Bans Be Supported? People smoke for a number of reasons. For young people, they smoke because they want to look mature, to be like their friends, and to experiment. Adults smoke for other reasons. Some believe smoking will keep them awake or help relieve stress, especially when they face a lot of stress and pressure as a result of economic and personal problems. Others smoke because they are addicted to smoking, a habit they probably started since they were in their teens. The most important reason why people smoke is smoking gives them pleasure and makes them feel good! Men in China now smoke more than a third of the world's cigarettes. A recent study revealed that 1 in 3 of all the young men in China will eventually be killed by tobacco unless a substantial proportion of them succeed in quitting smoking. The paper, which were published October 10, 2015 in ‘The Lancet’ medical journal, reported that two-thirds of young men in China start to smoke, mostly before the age of 20, and that unless they quit for good, around half of those who start will eventually die from their habit. In the United States, cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death. It causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the United States, nearly 1 in 5 deaths. Cigarette smoking can harm not only the smokers themselves but also bad for the people around them through secondhand smoke. The diseases that are caused by smoking include heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, and cancer almost anywhere in the body. Nations around the world have been striving to curb smoking rate. All sorts of smoking bans have been imposed in many countries. Smoking bans or smoke-free laws are public policies to prohibit smoking in workplaces and other public spaces. Research has shown that restriction on smoking in bars and restaurants can substantially improve the air quality in such establishments.
Several studies have documented health and economic benefits linked to smoking bans. For instance, a 2009 report by the Institute of Medicine indicated that smoking bans lowered the risk of coronary heart disease and heart attacks, but the researchers were unable to identify the magnitude of such reduction. Another study released also in 2009 found that bans on smoking in public places were associated with a significant reduction of incidence of heart attacks. It suggested that a nationwide ban on smoking in public places could prevent between 100,000 and 225,000 heart attacks in the United States each year. While most of the smoking bans are meant for indoor public places, lately there is intention for legislators to extend smoking bans to outdoor. A recent review of public surveys pointed out that a growing number of people in the United States and Canada support smoke-free laws for outdoor places, especially where children congregate or at building entrances. Based on 89 surveys in both countries between 1993 and 2014, researchers found that the growth of support for smoking restrictions, even among smokers, shows that outdoor smoking bans can achieve majority support. The findings were published online September 14, 2015 in journal ‘Tobacco Control’. In 1993, roughly three quarters of people surveyed supported smoke-free laws for school grounds, but the numbers jumped as high as 94 percent in some areas by 2014. Support seemed to grow over time for smoke-free outdoor restaurant and bar patios, ranging from 41 percent in Nevada in 2001 and 56 percent in California in 2008 to 82 percent in Ontario in 2011 and 70 percent in Saskatchewan in 2013. Researchers stressed that smoke-free outdoor laws can help smokers quit, increase hospitality business profits (by keeping customers healthy and earning and spending more money) and improve population productivity. Women were more supportive of the laws than men in all 23 surveys in the United States and Ontario, with 20 percent more women than men supporting the laws in some cases. The strong support from women might indicate their greater concern for children.
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