In many people’s views if you don’t smoke you aren't at risk of getting the diseases that smokers get. By focusing on smokers and preventing people from smoking the media overlooks the deeper problem of secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke is smoke from tobacco products. It is then breathed in by anyone who is close to a person smoking. This affects anyone, babies, kids, pets, and someone who never even touched a cigarette in there life because they know of the effects of smoking, anyone can then get a disease from breathing and taking in the toxic smoke. Nicotine is a highly addictive chemical in cigarettes, therefore, smokers are tempted to smoke anywhere parks, beaches, public outdoor centers. There is no law that in prohibits adults from smoking in public places so I can see why they do it because it's not illegal in the United States with the exception of California.

However, smoking should be banned in all public places in the United States. According to the National Website of Smoking & Tobacco Use, they claim that there is no risk-free level of secondhand smoke and even brief exposure is very harmful. Although this is true the nation is doing nothing to protect people from breathing in the toxic chemicals. Although I agree with the points that the website is saying that if children breathe in secondhand smoke they are likely to get severe asthma attacks, respiratory infections, a greater risk for sudden infant death syndrome, Lung cancer and many more. I cannot accept that the nation is only giving us the facts about these horrible things that are happening to our kids but at the same time, it is completely legal to be smoking a cigarette in a park around many children.

Many will agree that when your walking in the park and pass by someone who is smoking the smell is highly unpleasant but then you think it doesn't affect me because I don't smoke but they should stop because they are going to get a disease and possibly die. The sad part is that it doesn't just affect them but also you. It is highly advertised and focused that smokers should stop smoking. There is newspaper ads, tv ads, and political cartoons about the topic. In a political cartoon by top images, it sends a strong message to smokers how they are trading in their money to the tobacco industry in exchange for their own death. In spite of the fact that this is a good method of getting people to stop smoking it only shows the effect that it has on them it does doesn't show the harms of secondhand smoke that it does to their loved ones. We as a nation only focus on telling people to stop smoking because it harms smokers which is a large amount of people but we should be taking action and avoiding an even larger amount of people from getting the effects of smoke.

While it is true that we need to continue telling people to stop smoking we should give them facts of what smoking does to them, which we already do and it's a good thing we should also emphasize more what it does to people around them. Get the word around in a form of pathos so people rethink when they are about to smoke in a public place. Articles like from the British Lung Foundation is a great example of the things that we should see more often in order to decrease secondhand smoke from harming people. It encourages people to quit smoking by not only telling the benefits that they will get from it but also the people around them. If we get the word around smokers will think twice before smoking around other people.  This is great that the facts about secondhand smoke are out but we still need to do a permanent action in order to prevent it in all ways which is banning smoking in public places.

By making it illegal to smoke in a public place, it will make it harder for smokers to find somewhere to legally smoke. Not only is it beneficial to the community because if you go out to a public place you won’t breathe in toxic smoke. It is also beneficial to smokers because many smokers might stop smoking because it would be harder to smoke a cigarette they can't just go out to the park and smoke. They will come to the point where it's so complicated to smoke so then they will take the initiative to just quit smoking. Smoking should be banned in public places in the United States because not only does it get smokers to potentially quit smoking but most importantly it would keep our communities healthier because then we wouldn't breathe in hundreds of toxic cancer-causing chemicals.