My mother is dying of lung cancer from smoking right now. Growing up, she would smoke around me despite it causing me and my sister to have asthma attacks. I think forbidding it in public spaces does not go far enough. One's right to swing their fist ends where another's nose begins.
> My mother is dying of lung cancer from smoking right now.
I would like to say something encouraging, but can't think of anything fitting given the relative anonymity of this conversation.
> she would smoke around me despite it causing me and my sister to have asthma attacks
For me it was mostly my father. There was a time when everyone in my family (except me) smoked, but my siblings and my mother quit before or around the time when I got asthma. My father hung onto it for another 15 years. Then during a checkup, his doctor theorized that he may have lung cancer. The tests came back negative, but just visualizing this fate vividly caused my father to quit smoking from one day to the next.
So how do we balance personal liberty with respect for others? I don't know the solution but welcome the discourse. Part of the problem I think is that the people who engage in these behaviors don't care very much for themselves, let alone others. I've often wondered if people who partake in cigarette smoking have a death wish of sorts, just unable to take the fast route.
I think this is an important point that is often lost on people that don't smoke. So often in these discussions, smoking is assumed to have no positive effects. Strangely, most people don't take the same attitude when talking about alcohol.
Lack of awareness, tolerance and acceptance. Many people are just too hypocritical and I could point many such issues, so the problem is a more general one in society.