Banning Cigarettes A major concern of health officials, governments, and people everywhere is the smoking of cigarettes and the effects that it has on the smoker and non-smoker alike. There have been sweeping calls for reform of our smoking laws for years, ranging from the reduction of smoking areas to the outright banning of cigarettes in public places. There has always been pressure from health organizations but with the recent uproar of taxpayers, governments have looked for a quick fix to the problem of accommodating the smoker and non-smoker. As taxpayers have learned how many of their tax dollars are going towards the treatment of people with smoking related diseases such as lung cancer and heart disease, the gentle push for the banning cigarettes has become more of a violent shove in some places. In the past few years for example, smoking has been banned from school property as well as many other public places.
English: Smoking any tobacco product, %, Females
The Seat of Government
Government spendingHillary Clinton has banned smoking in the White House, and in New York City advertisements for cigarettes have been banned from anywhere within a thousand feet of schools and daycare centers. These regulations have been put into place with the intent of reducing the areas in which anything to do with smoking is banned. The most striking example of government action however, is in Bonn, Germany. By the year 2003 the city of Bonn is supposed to be smoke free; that means, smoking will be prohibited in all public places. Although I am a non-smoker and would be benefited by such legislation, I am conscious of the democratic rights of smokers, and more importantly establishment owners. In the war between smokers and non-smokers, the rights of owners of restaurants, bars, and other social establishments have been ignored. Although cigarettes have been proven...