Banning Smoking

Utilitarian holds that actions argon justifiable if they result in the superlative possible happiness for the greatest number. As such(prenominal), each adult male action can be said to be based upon this principle. However, in that location are instances where the society has accommodated practices that go for proved to result in the greatest amount of harm to the greatest number of individuals. The most notable of such practices is popular gage. Smoking is not only irritating to the non-smoker plainly withal harmful to the smoker.Research indicate that in America alone, smokers consume c set down to vanadium hundred billion cigarettes per annum with more than than four-hundred thousand endings every year cosmos attributed to this consumption (Slovic, 2001). With this regard, the society has every reason to invest all its energies in making sure that this practice is stopped since it is the whizz most preventable ca drill of premature goal in numerous countries. As such, the society, by its most powerful institution, the government, is justified in not only proscription public green god diethylstilboestrols but hummer in general.The area health Organization predict that the number of deaths as a result of baccy smoking go out get hold from four million people to cardinal million by the year twenty thirty (World Health Organization, 1997). In other words, if smoking is not banned, many individuals are going to lose their lives. there is no doubt that baccy possess serious health risks. Anecdotal evidence of possible harms from this habit begun to be gathered in short after(prenominal)(prenominal) it was introduced in Europe even though it was until the eighteenth and nineteenth century that physicians started publishing observations of serious life threatening hazards (Proctor, 2004).It was during this check that crabby person of the mouth, nose and lips became associated with tobacco snuff. In France in the year eighteen fift ys, a physician by the name Etienne-Frederic Bouisson discovered that the volume of his patients suffering from malignant neoplastic disease of the mouth were pipe smokers (Shephard, 1982). In Berlin, Rudolf Virchow also reported the same observations dead after (Ibid, 234). By the end of the century, cancer of the lips, tongue, mouth, jaw, nasal cavities and pharynx were so common to cancer specialists that medical students wrote widely on the topic-then famously love to physicians as Smokers cancers (Cortyl, 1897).Despite these inherent dangers, the society has continued to tolerate this silent killer. However, it is the traffic of the government to protect its people from exposure to any dangers. With regard to this, many governments have failed. The practice ought to have been banned immediately after the get-go reports but this has not been the case. Actually, tobacco consumption increased in the recent nineteenth and twentieth centuries with the invention of machines th at could roll thousands of cigarettes per day (Viscusi, 1992).Coupled with the invention of safe matches, the habit quickly became popular. Instead of the government considering the health consequences of the habit, they quickly recognised the drug as a source of tax revenue. This has continued into this period with the result of advanceing the map of the drug. However, some states in the United States banned the use of the drug as they recognized the reality of its dangers but the bans became lifted in the 1920s. During this period, there seemed to be much ignorance among the majority population with regard to the true consequences of tobacco smoking.As such, the governments of the time may be excused on their sermon of the issue. In recent quantify though, there has been a stream of large developments concerning the understanding of tobacco smoking and its harmful consequences. More understanding have been achieved with regard to secondary smoking and the consequences on th e fetus when a meaning(a) mother engages in the habit. Very surprising and disturbing findings concerning the observed impacts of smoking or nicotine dependence on twelve to thirteen year olds after days or weeks of light smoking (DiFranza et al, 2000).It was also discovered in the recent past that tobacco companies have been concealing the risks associated with smoking in their attempt to lure young people into smoking. All over the world, the manufacturers and merchants of tobacco have put their own economic interests above the health and lives of a million consumers to whom they sell their products. It is known that all these tobacco products contain nicotine which is by all odds the element that is responsible for the most persistent and widespread drug dependence. There is no doubt about the fact that tobacco kills.It accounts for one death in every ten seconds (Slama, 1995). The majority of the victims die in their ground life and if the trend continues, as have been project ed by the World Health Organization, tobacco will account for one death after every three seconds. The habit did not come as a product of chance. It has been furthered by effective marketing policies of the exertion that have been utilize in many countries. The consumption of tobacco is expensive in the broad run, not just in terms of gentlemans gentleman health but also in terms of finance.Even with the short term benefits of the tobacco industry in mind, the net loss that is beingness suffered every year by the world community as a result of smoking is estimated at two hundred thousand million dollars (Stratton, 2001). This is not a little(a) amount of money and if it could be harnessed, it would be enough to double the trustworthy health care expenditure in the developing parts of the world. However, it is the right of the health care sector to create awareness on the literal dangers of tobacco use. Since tobacco is an international commodity, the war against it must the refore be worldwide.Public health is one of the sectors that has been worst hit by the habit. With this regard, the habit right away or indirectly impacts on the national budget of many countries. The business affects every section of the society and every age and every single member of the society faces its grave consequences. It is frankincense the responsibility of the government to bind sure that every single member of the society of protected from death that can be easily avoided. The major reasons for the call to ban tobacco are not founded on empty grounds. They have been driven by means of the centuries by the concrete evidence on its health effects.It is amazing that heedless of the centuries of research evidence and findings concerning the dangers of the drug, many countries still treats the issue with less seriousness. pubic louse has been rated among the deadliest diseases. The world is trying to find ways of countering this condition but has saturnine its back on the actual causes. There is numerous evidence that indicates that smoking causes cancer and and so, there is absolutely no way that the society will pretend to fight cancer without addressing such issues as banning smoking.The rise of lung cancer and coronary heart disease that were once rare was detect in the twentieth century and an attempt to explain such increases revealed that smoking was among their causes. However, it would be wrong to assert that the medical findings and reports were understood by the public and in situations where they were published, the tobacco industries countered such claims with assurances on the safety of smoking, at times using such reports to convince the consumers to change brands.Going by the utilitarian principle, there is no doubt that all the arguments supporting the ban of smoking should be treated with much sensitivity as the health of real human individuals is at stake. The human race does not need any further proof as to the harms and dan gers of smoking and thus, every government should ban the use of tobacco so that a healthy society is realized. Tough measures should be taken against the tobacco industry as they blatantly deceive the majority into death in the name of making profits.In the mid twentieth century, individuals involve in tobacco industry were quoted as saying that they would quit the business if it was established that it poses serious health risks to the smokers. Almost half a ten-spot later, even with enough evidence that smoking is dangerous to ones health the industries are still alive and making millions of shillings while the majority perish. Instead of being in the forefront of informing its consumers of the dangers, the tobacco industry has tried every conceivable deceit to cover up the dangers and win over more consumers.This responsibility of protecting the citizens from the harmful effects of tobacco can thus not be entrusted in the hands of the business people but in the hands of the mo st superior institution of the society, the government. The government would thus do much justice to its citizens by banning smoking. References Cortyl, J. (1897) Du Cancer des fumeurs. Paris Henri Jouve, (Translated by Edmond Gwan). Proctor, R. (2004). tobacco plant and Health. Journal of Philosophy, Science and Law. Vol.4 9-11 Shephard, R. (1982). The risks of passive smoking. Taylor & Francis Slama, K. (1995). tobacco plant and health. Springer Science & Business Slovic, P. (2001). Smoking risk, perception & policy. SAGE Stratton, K. , (2001). clarification the smoke assessing the science base for tobacco harm reduction. National Academies public press Viscusi, K. (1992). Smoking making the risky decision. Oxford University Press World Health Organization, Tobacco or Health A Global Status Report (Geneva WHO, 1997).