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Lung cancer is one of the most prevalent causes of death in the United States. And while it can be caused by a number of different factors such as exposures to asbestos (mesothelioma), it is mostly the effect of one form of drug usage: cigarette smoking that lines the lungs with tar and nicotine.

We are seeing an alarming increasing of another life-threatening form of lung disease in our society, today. And, unfortunately, our children are the main targets. Asthma caused by the constriction of the airways brought on by an adverse reaction to primary AND secondary smoke. That means that cigarette smoking (actually, any kind of smoke) harms not only ourselves, but others around us.

A number of states are now cracking down on second-hand smoke by enforcing a no-smoking policy in public buildings. While smokers have the right to destroy their bodies with the bad habits they formed over the years, it makes sense that non-smokers and children will have the equal right to clean air, without suffering the consequences of someone else's drug habits. And that's exactly what smoking IS - a DRUG habit.

As a society, we have frowned on all sorts of drug usage from pot to coke. How is smoking different? Not so very much! Smoking is a habit forming behavior that causes us to "need" a fix every so often because the nicotine in the product creates that insatiable urge to light up. Over time, we develop a degree of tolerance where more and more puffs are needed in order to satisfy that same urge. Where does that lead us? Down the road of nevermore where we just keep building up our stockade of lights as we follow that urge down the path of no return. Each day, we light up more and more cigs to satisfy an escalating urge. And, all the while, we are puffing out into the air the poisons that can kill others, including our children.

If we do not have the strength to end our own obsessions, then somebody must do it for us so that we don't take other people down with us. While smoking is legal and we can do it in our own homes, it should be totally restricted in public areas where other people can be exposed to the toxins that can cause their ultimate death.

I watched my mother die of lung cancer, despite the fact that she never smoked a cigarette in her life. But, she lived in a house where her husband, three sons, and daughter were avid puffers. Her death was slow and painful. And, it was all the more painful for her 4-year grandchild who watched her wither - the grandmother she thought could never die, the grandmother she loved more than any of her dolls or any of her imaginary heroes and heroines, died and left her wondering why.

Each of us owns our own bodies. We each have the choice to put into it what we choose. But, we DON'T have the right to blow off those poisons onto others - especially our children. With lung disease creeping up in the charts as one of the major causes of harm, infirmity, and death in our society today, public smoking is no less than allowing public lynching. For that is, in a sense, what it is. Smoke kills. And, it doesn't just kill you ... it kills everyone around you.

Learn more about this author, Mary Pagay.
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