Smoking in Public Space
In 2020, it is going to held Olympics in
Tokyo, and people in Japan have to solve some problem to succeed it. One of
these problem is smoking, and we are discussing smoking area. According to “Efforts to stop
passive smoking”, government’s plan to limit to smoke
in public space is opposed by Liberal Democratic Party because they insists if this plan
pass, small establishments will not work. For example, in my country, most
restaurant distinguish between smoking area and non-smoking area. However,
small restaurant, such as Japanese-style pubs called Izakaya, which we can drink and eat in, don’t have distinction, and
they can’t afford to set it up because some of them run it personally.
In my
country, the rate of smoker fell to a record low 18.2 percent in 2015, and
smokers are minority. Therefore, many people argue risk of smoking. According
to same article, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry reported that 15,000
people die in Japan every year caused by passive smoking, including illness
from smoking. In addition, WHO encourage countries to protect people from
passive smoking, and 49 countries enforce a law that is to prohibit people from
smoking in public space, including school and restaurant. However, only Japan
has no penalty of smoking in public space. Therefore, some people ask for
enforcing a law of smoking.
By the way,
how will we be influenced by smoking? We already know smoking is bad for our
health, but recently many people said secondhand smoke is more harmful for
health. Secondhand smoke is both the smoke from burning cigarette and the smoke
from smoker, that is to say it is harmful even for non-smoker. According to
“Secondhand Smoke is Toxic”, ten thousand people in America died or had serious
illness because of secondhand smoke. In fact, secondhand smoke could lead to
asthma in children who had not have any symptoms.
I think
smoking in public space should be banned by a law, because smoker is now
minority, and we have some problem about smoke. For example, smoking could cause
some illness of lung or blood vessel. Moreover, as I wrote before, secondhand
smoke could influenced people who are surrounded by smoker. Some people said
people who are surrounded by smoker have more risk than smoker. Additionally, recently
tobacco tax has increased, and more people try to stop smoking. Therefore, I thought
government should prohibit people from smoking in public. Thank you for
reading.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2017/02/24/editorials/efforts-stop-passive-smoking/#.WLOMkIWcHIU