Smoking Ban in Public Places

All people have a fundamental right to breathe clean air—with no exceptions. In the past few decades America has made great strides in protecting the individual’s right to a smoke-free environment but there is still work to do. No one should have to choose between their health and a good job; law that prohibit smoking in public places help create a healthy environment for all people. The common good must be protected over the perceived individual’s right to smoke because clean air but clean air is a basic human right secured by the United States Constitution’s promise to establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, and promote the general welfare. Local, state, and even the federal government need to impose smoking bans in public places. It’s an American right to breathe clean air.
Anti-smoking laws help establish justice by creating healthy workplaces and public environments for all. When the government or independent institutions work to establish justice, it is securing equality to all. Clean breathable air allows every individual the same opportunity to live healthy lives without giving favor to a specific group who may choose to smoke. Nearly 440,000 American die each year from smoking-related illness and about 38,000 of those are directly related to secondhand-smoke. According to a recent study at the Center for Disease Control, smokers and nonsmokers alike benefit from workplace and public area smoking bans. Dr. Lynn R. Goldman of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who chaired the panel that produced report said, “It is clear the smoking bans work. [They] reduce the risk of heart attacks in nonsmokers as well as smokers” (LA Times). It is the government responsibility to ensure nobody is subject to toxic air in the public or at the workplace. Clean air provides all persons with an equal opportunity to succeed. When the government creates, enacts and enforces smoke-free laws, it is working to establish justice in our country. Local,