In some countries, people are no longer allowed to smoke in many public places and office buildings. Do you think this is a good rule or a bad rule? Nowadays people are more aware of danger of second smoke. Therefore, a controversy has been arisen that whether governments should restrict people to smoke in public. The issue involves a conflict between our right as individuals to freely do whatever we want and the duty of governments to protect their citizenry from potential harm. In my view, our societal interest in preventing the harm that exposure to second smoke takes precedence over the rights of individuals to smoke liberally. Admittedly, those who advocate unbridled smoking behavior might point out that since cigarettes are legal commodities, governments should respect the right of smoking. However, this right is not absolute, nor should it bother other people. Personally, I believe forbidding smoking in public places and office buildings brings much good than harm due to two reasons as followed. First of all, smoking behavior is indeed harmful to a society. When a person smokes, the air one exhales contains nicotine, which is a toxic chemical that may increase the chances of others of developing lung cancer. In fact, according to many medical reports, smoking does much harm to people who are exposed to second smoking than to the smokers. Consequently, authorities should protect the right of not be exposed to harmful environments rather than the right of freely smoking. Secondly, I believe that exposure to smoking behavior is very likely to cause similar behavior, especially to children. Both common sense and our experiences with children inform us that people tend to mimic the behavior they are exposed to. They might misunderstand smoking as an expression of mature, without knowing the hurtful characteristics. Therefore, it is governments’ responsibility to protect immature people from potential contamination. In conclusion, the advantages of prohibiting smoking in the public outweigh its disadvantages. Exposure to such behavior tends to harm society and its citizenry in ways that are worth preventing, even in light of the resulting infringement of our right of doing whatever we want. --

※ 发信站: 批踢踢实业坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 218.167.4.97