Cancer and the Public, Essay Example

The association between cigarettes and cancer is well founded and proven by hundreds if not thousands of clinical studies; nevertheless, people continue to smoke. Society decrees it is the right of an adult to choose to subject their own health to the cacogenic chemicals within cigarette smoke. Therefore, people can decide to smoke or not, but the population as a whole is forced to drink, or use drinking water in cooking and washing. This would subject children and the sick to the harmful chemicals. If the drinking water had a cancer-giving chemical within it the result would be public outrage.

The water companies have an obligation to the public to provide top quality drinking water, and many people would feel that their trust was misplaced. The general population would also be furious with the local government for not foreseeing the risk to the drinking water supply. In addition, there would be panic buying of water at grocery stores, leading to civil unrest. Water, the most important substance for life is rightly perceived as a vital element within modern society, however, clean air is also essential for life and smoking does not promote healthy living.

When adults smoke they are not only endangering themselves but also their children and those who are simply walking by while they are smoking. The idea that smoking is the right of the individual, that they are only harming their own health is a falsely- smoking damages people’s health through second-hand smoke. For example, a parent could happy smoke while driving their child to school but would never consider feeding their offspring contaminated drinking water. This is counterproductive when attempting to address the health of the public and only when smoking is seen and an overall menace to the health of many will it be properly addressed.