1006_Group_P1

Position Paper – Part One

Name: Meghan Nichol

Instructions: Please use this form as an organizer for writing your portion of your group position paper. You will be writing the opening paragraphs of the paper. You should clearly and thoroughly identify the problem that you are addressing. You may use your own research and the research from other members of your group. Be sure to follow the MLA citation format that you used when completing your JRP. Your portion of the paper should be a minimum of one page in length.

I. There is a problem in society today. That problem is

A growing problem in society today is public smoking. The active smoker has a right to smoke and do whatever he/she wishes with his/her body, but the passive smokers, one's suffering from secondhand smoke, have a right to not have to breathe in other's smoke. From breathing in secondhand smoke, citizens of America are increasing their chances of contracting cancer, emphysema, or even heart disease. Not only are people affected just walking outside where most people smoke, but workplaces and restaurants are becoming problems with more and more employees smoking causing more people to be affected by the secondhand smoke.

II. Facts that demonstrate that there is a problem are: (You may use your own sources and the sources of the members in your group)

Sadly, it is not that difficult to find statistics stacking against smoking. Just the smoke from smoking has been linked to illnesses such as asthma, bronchitis, cancer, and heart disease in both kids and adults. The link between smoke and cancer is that smoke is now known as a human carcinogen according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Secondhand Smoke 1). The more one is exposed to secondhand smoke, the more likely they are to contract cancer. The risk increases include: 30% increase of lung cancer in spouses of smokers and a 225% increase if one is surrounded by friends and family that smoke (Secondhand Smoke 1). The report by the Surgeon General says that secondhand smoke causes about 3,400 lung cancer deaths and 46,000 heart disease deaths in adult nonsmokers (Smoking). Heart disease is also a common ailment due to smoke because it causes blood clots and damage to arteries leading to the development of heart disease.

Smoke is dangerous for everyone but especially for children. This includes newborns and infants. Infants that are born into a family of smokers usually end up weighing less and have weaker lungs. This leads to the infants possibly dying sooner that other sick babies (Secondhand Smoke 3). Authorities now consider smoking inside a vehicle as a form of child abuse because the adults are able to choose whether they want to smoke or not but the kids can not choose to not breathe in the secondhand smoke (Butts Out 3). Everyday about 1,000 teens are trying smoking and are becoming addicted because of the new forms of nicotine arriving at the brain faster than before (Nation Must). This includes 13.6% of 10th graders smoking (Nation Must).

Statistics on smoking include insane numbers; for example, if a person spends more than two hours in a room where someone is smoking, the nonsmoker inhales the equivalent of four cigarettes (Secondhand Smoke Facts 1)! Secondhand smoke includes more toxins than the smoke that actually enters the active smokers' body. It's been found that only 15% of smoke is inhaled by the smoker while the other 85% of the smoke is left in the air for others to breathe in. The smoke that the bystanders do breathe in contains 3x more cancer-causing benzpyrene, 5x more carbon monoxide, and 50x more ammonia than the smoke breathed by the person smoking the cigarette (Secondhand Smoke Facts 1). All the facts on smoking lead up to it being the third leading preventable cause of disability and early death in America (Secondhand Smoke Facts 1).