Should Smoking be banned in Public Space?

Good morning, my name is Jason and today I will be arguing on the topic of whether smoking should be banned in public places. I’m going to start out by saying a firm yes! I believe any person, child or adult should be able to walk down the street without being victim to this hazardous smoke, without question!
Smoking is a risk factor of many health issues from cancer to a heart attack or stroke. So I think it is sad that when someone in a public space is smoking and another person who is just walking by, breathes in the smoke involuntarily and becomes at risk of such diseases or even death. This is called second hand smoke. 600,000 people in the world are killed by second hand smoke annually, just think about that. To make matters even worse, some of these 600,000 people are actually innocent babies and children who certainly don’t deserve to be exposed to such harmful chemicals. The Cancer Council of Australia has stated, ‘Tobacco smoke contains more than 4,000 chemical compounds. Second-hand smoke contains higher concentrations of many of the toxins found in cigarette smoke, because it is generated at lower temperatures and under different conditions than mainstream smoke’. This further strengthens my point in saying that second hand smoke is a huge issue because as stated, second-hand smoke is actually more harmful than the smoke that smokers breathe in.

Now, I myself as an asthma sufferer knows of the difficulty we can face in our everyday lives. It sometimes makes the easy things like walking to school, carrying heavy bags, going for a jog and participating in sport seem extra difficult for us as we can’t breathe when performing these tasks. Studies have shown that tobacco smoke can trigger asthma and from personal experience, I can say that it is pretty daunting. Some of you may ask why and how it triggers asthma and I have the answer; when a person inhales tobacco smoke, the irritating substances settle in the moist lining of the airways. These substances cause attacks in those who have asthma. To give you an idea of how bad asthma really is, around 255,000 people die from it every year, so to those of you who don’t take asthma as a serious issue and don’t see it as a disease that really effects the lives of people, the statistics speak for themselves. If our government were to ban smoking in public places, the number of deaths will drop dramatically. Smokers may say something like; “They should have an inhaler on them at all times” and yes that is very true, but I really don’t think they are realizing how much damage they are inflicting on asthma sufferers. Ask yourself question smokers; would you like to be the cause of deaths in the innocent asthma sufferers?

If smoking was to be banned in public places, then I believe it would be the final push that makes those smokers who want to quit, take that leap and put their cigarettes down forever. Dr Andrew Penman, the chief executive officer of the Cancer Council of New South Wales, has stated, ‘For those wanting to give smoking up,