by Joeseph C. Byrnes

Created on: February 27, 2009   Last Updated: June 29, 2009

There was a time when I believed that smoking in public should not be regulated. Many of my acquaintances and friends smoke, and I have always believed that people should be free to do as they wish. Since I am not a smoker I merely stood upwind of them when they chose to 'light up'. For years I argued in support of a person's right to smoke, and many times I have heard people say, "Cigarette smoke really bothers me." Until it began to affect me though, I never really understood what those people meant. I had always thought that they were just complaining about the smell.

One day, a few years ago, I discovered that I had developed an allergy to cigarette smoke. At first I continued to staunchly defend a persons right to smoke, but over time, the allergy I had developed became worse and I began to understand how cigarette smoke, even second hand, can really hurt someone. When I first inhale cigarette smoke, my nose closes up almost instantly, and I have to breathe through my mouth. This works for a while until my throat closes up and breathing becomes difficult. My eyes begin to really ache and hurt, and I develop a dull headache which can quickly become a migraine. In short, it is extremely uncomfortable and what makes the situation even worse is that I do not even have to inhale cigarette smoke directly. Just the smell of it, like on someone's clothes or in their vehicle, can cause me to have an allergic reaction.

While I still believe people should have the right to smoke wherever they wish, I have come now to favor regulations banning smoking in public. This is because most of the people that I see smoking in public do so without any regard for those around them.

One example of this disregard and probably the most common to be seen is a smoker standing in front of a store entrance, forcing everyone who enters or leaves the building to walk through cigarette smoke. Often times the smoker does not even bother to stand downwind from the doorway so as to limit the exposure others would have to their smoke. Also, what about restaurants that allow smoking inside? Often a smoker will light up at his table rather than going outside. Or what about while simply standing around, say at a street corner or in a parking lot? I have witnessed many smokers who have chosen to smoke while standing in a crowd of people.

While I would like to support people's freedoms, it is also necessary for me to support the health of myself and those around me. In the past few years, I have met many people who are allergic to cigarette smoke, some of them even more so than I. While I know that some smokers are courteous enough to ensure that their cigarette smoke does not bother anyone else, many smokers do not. Since this is a freedom that if abused can seriously affect someone else's health, it is therefore a freedom which must be exercised with a certain amount of responsibility and regard for other people. If more smokers were conscientious enough to find an out of the way place where their smoke could be kept contained and away from everyone else, then I would support public smoking. Until then I am afraid that I must say that smoking in public should be illegal.

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