Extend public smoking ban

My grandfather started smoking when he was nine years old. Over the course of his life, he developed serious health conditions, partly attributed to his bad habit. Throughout my childhood, he was in and out of the hospital; news of his death would not have been a surprise. But it wasn't until years later that he passed away. Someone else's life was taken first. His wife, my grandmother, died seven months after she was diagnosed with lung cancer.\nMy grandmother never smoked a cigarette in her life.\nSecondhand smoke is classified as a known cause of lung cancer, resulting in an estimated 3,000 deaths according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The death of my grandmother caused a lot of anger and resentment toward my grandfather and the idea of secondhand smoke -- that your health can be endangered by another's personal choice. \nThis is a big issue nationally as well and has prompted California, Maine, Vermont, Delaware and Florida to ban smoking in the workplace, which includes certain restaurants and bars. The threat of a public smoking ban has generated a lot of debate, which is expected since Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approximates 47 million American adults are smokers.\nOpponents to a ban argue that individual freedoms are being taken away. In a recent MSNBC interview, Wendy Stone, a member of Floridians Fighting the Erosion of Individual Rights, and a non-smoker herself, said that the ban "violates private property rights of individual choice" and people "are smart enough to decide for ourselves what our tolerance level is for cigarette smoke." I can understand this side of the case -- the government playing Mom. If where the American public smokes can be dictated, what's next -- what we eat, how much we drink and how late we stay out? That makes sense, but it's wrong. \nSmoking is not just an issue of personal choice, it's a public health concern. The right to smoke is not being jeopardized here -- it's when that right infringes upon another person. The medical evidence regarding the harm of secondhand smoke is alarming, to say the least. What is most disheartening are the effects upon children. The EPA reports children exposed to passing smoke are at risk for lower respiratory tract infections in infants and children younger than 18 months (which results in 7,500 to 15,000 hospitalizations each year) and they are more likely to have reduced lung function and symptoms of respiratory irritation, among other possible effects. Secondhand smoke has even been linked to feline cancer in a study at Tufts University and the University of Massachusetts. \nSo, when a person is being exposed to smoke in a public place, that person should not have to compromise their agenda in order to maintain a healthy environment. Martin Larsen, Chairman of Smoke-Free Health, said in the same interview with Stone: "We don't blame the victim of a car accident hit by a drunk driver. What we do is we go and we throw the drunk driver in jail."\nI don't care if people smoke. In fact, I have lots of friends who smoke. Most college students have friends who smoke or smoke themselves. But 3,000 deaths from secondhand smoke is inexcusable. The ban in public work places needs to be extended to more states to ensure public health and make an attempt at lowering the statistics and possibly save lives.