Ethics

It has been proved, beyond doubt, that smoking is harmful but still people smoke throughout the world. They are very well aware about the harmful effects of smoking but still they can not give it up because of their addition to it. Smoking also affects non-smokers or passive smokers. The governments all over the world should make it mandatory to stop smoking in work places to protect passive smokers in working places. There are ways to give up smoking but, first of all, a smoker should have very strong will power to give it up. One of the possible ways is to reduce smoking slowly-2. Suppose a person smokes 10 cigarettes a day. It is not possible to stop smoking suddenly. That person can come to 9 cigarettes a day for some days, then 8 cigarettes a day and so on. Thus, smoking can be given up. This can be one of the ways to give up smoking.

Smoking can be defined as inhalation and exhalation of fumes generated on burning of tobacco. Burning of wood etc. also generates fumes but tobacco burning generates different type of fumes having different chemical composition. The chemical composition of fumes depends on the environment in which tobacco is burnt, moisture content in the environment, oxygen content in the environment etc. When tobacco is burnt in oxygen deficient environment, the fumes are more harmful. Similar situation happens when some body smokes a cigarette. In case of cigarette smoking, the tobacco is burnt in oxygen deficient environment and, as a result, fumes inhaled are more dangerous. Burning in oxygen deficient environment generates carbon monoxide which can lead to asphyxiation, a condition in which brain is deprived of oxygen as hemoglobin has more affinity to carbon monoxide than oxygen. As a result, the brain does not get the required amount of oxygen and brain functioning suffers. Actually hemoglobin transports oxygen to the brain. When carbon monoxide is also inhaled, hemoglobin prefers to bond with carbon monoxide rather than oxygen because of its high affinity to carbon monoxide (the affinity ratio is 51) leading to disturbance in brain functioning. Tobacco fumes also contain nicotine, a number of aldehydes, acrolein, ammonia etc. Actually, presence of nicotine makes a person addicted to smoking. Once nicotine is dissolved in blood and a certain level is reached, body does not allow nicotine to go below this level and the person feels strong desire to smoke and maintain he nicotine level.

Normally we inhale oxygen along with the other air constituents. On exhaling, the breath coming out contains carbon dioxide, which is more harmful. Similarly, exhaled smoke is also more harmful than inhaled fumes as it contains more harmful gases. These gases pollute the environment. If these exhaled smokes are inhaled by non-smokers, these create more harm to them. Actually, non-smokers are more vulnerable to these more harmful exhaled smokes as their bodies are not tuned to such smokes. If smoking is allowed in working places such as restaurant, banks etc. it not only makes the environment oxygen deficient but also introduces more harmful gases due to smoking as mentioned above.  This affects non-smokers, many times called passive smokers, in a much more harmful way. Hence, smoking should not be allowed in working places to protect the passive smokers from the more dangerous side effects of smoking. Actually, smoking does not lead to so much harmful effects in public places as concentration of exhaled gases does not go as high as in working places because of smaller working areas. The governments all over the world should have banned smoking in the working places long back but still banning smoking in work places is better.