The smoking rate continues to drift down, and smoking among teenagers is at an all-time low. The culture and public’s view on smoking has dramatically changed. The aggressive campaigns waged by the American people and the US government towards a smoke-free society like smoking bans and higher taxes on cigarettes, are starting to take effect. Some cities in the United States are now moving towards a smoke-free society.

It is now well-known that second-hand smoke alone maims and kills. In the United States, more than 38,000 people die each year from cardiovascular diseases and cancers due to second-hand smoke. There are 4000 toxic chemicals (200 of them known poisons and carcinogens: cancer-causing agents) in second-hand smoke. Inhaling cigarette fumes is even worse than active smoking, which, without any doubt, is deadly in itself.

The move to protect children and non-smokers from second-hand smoke makes sense. Nobody should be forced to inhale toxic agents. And when a non-smoker is in a room filled with smoke, he/she is actually forced to inhale the poisonous secondhand smoke. While the smoker has the legal right to smoke and harm themselves, children and non-smokers also have their right to smoke-free air and protect their health and well-being. Each should respect the other’s rights.

The smoking ban in all public places is a good start. Survey shows the public (88 percent in Washington, about the same in most other states) strongly supports the smoking ban, including in bars. Other disincentives for smoking could be effective (even for the protection of the smokers themselves), like higher taxes on cigarettes, which will make them too expensive, especially for kids, strict law enforcement of prohibition of underage sales of tobacco, banning cigarette sales near schools and other areas where children are and levying higher taxes, surcharges, on cigarette manufacturers, who should partly subsidize medical expenses incurred by the government on those citizens afflicted with smoke-related illnesses, and expenses for public education on the hazards of smoking, and ongoing research studies on smoking as a public health issue.

As far as individual private homes are concerned, it behooves smokers in the house to go outside to smoke, away from windows and doors to prevent cigarette smoke from drifting back into the house and harming family members.

While some smokers still refuse to accept the medical fact that second-hand smoke causes respiratory diseases, cardiovascular illnesses, and cancers, the medical literature is replete with overwhelming proof in thousands of scientific and clinical studies that show the damaging, ravaging, and deadly consequences of firsthand and secondhand tobacco smokes.

Young children and infants are more vulnerable to tobacco smokes and fumes. Pregnant women who smoke pass these dangerous substances to the fetus, causing higher incidents of smaller babies, some with diminished mental acuity, or even wit retardation, most with babies that are prone to frequent respirator infections and asthmatic attacks. Studies have shown that in their first two years of life, babies whose parent(s) smoke(s) at home have higher incidence of lung diseases such as bronchitis and pneumonia than babies of non-smokers. Smoke also aggravates asthma in children and may even precipitate attacks. Parents, especially pregnant mothers, and all of us for that matter, should not smoke, but if we have to, we should do it outside our home, and away from people.

In our more than three decades of medical practice, we have seen countless patients, who were victims of secondhand smoke, individuals who languished, suffered, and died of lung cancer. These unfortunate individuals never smoked but were exposed to second-hand smoke at home or at the workplace.

For public buildings (shopping malls, restaurants, bars, airports, etc.), creating a smoking section is like designating a urinating area in a swimming pool, as we have alluded to in a previous column. In this situation, the most practical, cost-free and effective strategy is for the smokers to go outside the building when they light up.

Smokers have the legal right to enjoy their habit, so long as it does not cause harm to others. Non-smokers also have the constitutional right not to be forced to inhale poisonous tobacco smokes dissipated by smokers in a closed environment. The onus is clearly on the smoker, who controls the situation, guided by the existing laws.

Today, smoking no longer provides the glamorous image it used to confer upon celebrities, especially those in the movies. The habit is now viewed as unclean and unhealthy, one that is not welcome in homes and other private places, even among friends and family. Until the global community has achieved a smoke-free world, man, smokers and non-smokers alike, has to continue to devise ways to protect himself and his family from the deadly effects of cigarettes.