People who smoke have the right to ruin their health. It is their prerogative. If they want to increase the risk of lung cancer, emphysema, and/or heart disease, they have the choice to do so. If they want to cut their lives short, again, they have the choice to do so, but they do not have the license to infringe upon the rights of others. Therefore, smoking should be banned in public places, allowing nonsmokers to live in a smoke-free environment they desire to be in.

Just like how smokers have the right to make their decisions, nonsmokers also have the right not to harm themselves. They are by no means obliged to inhale any tobacco in any form. Yet when smoking occurs in public places, even when it is outside - and there are designated public smoking areas, everyone is subjected to secondhand smoke which is the same as smoking itself.

Secondhand smokeis nothing to laugh at. It can still harm people just as smoking can. The United States Center for Disease Control states that secondhand smoke caused over 34,000 heart-related deaths and over 7,300 lung-related deaths between 2005 and 2009 in the United States alone.

When you add people with conditions like asthma who cannot tolerate cigarette smoke, the situation gets worse. Not only do they not choose to smoke,they cannot smoke in the first place. Inhaling secondhand smoke constricts their poor, fragile lungs to the point of irreversible damage.

The sad reality is that, involuntarily, everyone is a smoker in a way. Since many people are suffering from secondhand smoke, they must be inhaling the very toxins that cigarettes produce when people smoke in public. The only people whoshould face the dangers in cigarettes are those that decide to smoke and no one else; therefore, they should smoke in private where secondhand smoke stays contained in order to respect the rights of people who do not smoke.

People who want to smoke should be allowed to do so. Tobacco is not an illegal drug, and it is not our business to tell anyone to stop smoking. They can do what they want with their lives, yet it is our business to tell smokers to stop smoking in public. When people smoke in public, they are not only harming themselves, but others as well. These people should not be subjected to secondhand smoke.