Editorial: Creating a Safer Environment by Brenda

Imagine yourself taking a walk across town and right as you are taking a great whiff of the “fresh” autumn air, you smell something quite peculiar. It is the smell of smoke from a freshly lit cigarette that is devouring the air that you wish to inhale. With every breath of secondhand smoke that you take, you don’t consider the harmful effects that could possibly damage your body. We, as people, often have a misconception of how smoking causes greater damage than secondhand smoking, but in reality, secondhand smoking can be just as bad. If we are able to ban smoking in public areas, then it would create a safer environment for the people in our community.

You may ask, “What is secondhand smoking?” Secondhand smoking is when someone who may or may not smoke unintentionally inhales tobacco smoke. Secondhand smoking is becoming a hazardous problem that manages to cause close to 50,000 deaths per year. Secondhand smoke exposure is known to cause incurable diseases such as: lung cancer, respiratory infections and asthma. It also causes premature death in children and adults who do not smoke.  A lot of people aren’t aware that secondhand smoking causes great harm to the innocent lives in our community.

If secondhand smoking is this harmful, why are people continuously exposed to it? The reason for this is because people are allowed and have the right to smoke in public areas with limited regulations set upon them in the city of Sacramento.  If we want to live in a community with less polluted air, regulations in public areas like outdoor restaurants and farmers’ markets need to be set in order for us to improve the community. By setting regulations, we could reduce the 7,000 harmful chemicals in tobacco smoke that are currently present in the air, in which at least 250 are known to damage our health.

Taking a small step, like setting regulations for smoking in public areas, will impact our community for the better. This will be the approach in protecting nonsmokers from secondhand smoke exposure. I highly believe that if we, as a community, could get this proposal approved, it will open doors for change in the future of Sacramento.