It is pointless for smokers to complain that their rights should be given equal weight since there is no equivalence between the two groups: there is no entitlement to pollute others’ environments. Clean air is a fundamental right. Without clean air, we die.

One of my missions in life is to have cigarette smoking banned from planet Earth. I say we should be the first country to ban smoking outright. New Zealand was the first country to give women the vote. That move was seen as threatening, risky, dangerous.

Cigarette companies target the young, uneducated, poor and ethnic at the most emotionally vulnerable time of their lives; when they are kids. Cigarette companies are guilty of the world kind of child abuse; drug addiction for profit. Smoking is slavery.

If you drink alcohol right next to me, it does not turn me into an alcoholic, nor does it get me drunk, nor do I suffer any aftereffects. That is the difference; Smoking kills everyone — not just the smoker. Smoking kills innocent bystanders as well as killing you.

At the present rate of decline it will take about 70 years to reduce smoking to zero. This is too slow. Making smoking nearly impossible will save lives. Period. If tobacco was introduced today, it would be illegal. Banning smoking is the first step. Think about it.

Third-hand smoke is the tobacco smoke that remains after the cigarette is extinguished. It’s the toxic layer that is deposited on every surface indoors where a smoker lights up: in cars, on smokers’ clothing and hair. It is deadly to our loved infants and children.

Smoking parents frequently underestimate the danger their habit is doing to their children. It’s almost as if people are in denial. Worldwide, second-hand smoking exposure kills 600,000 innocent non-smokers every year. Yes, these are innocent children.