Reflection Paragraph on Findings

    In the process of researching my topic of smoking in public places, I was educated on the various pros and cons of having a ban on smoking in public places. There were many cons to having a ban; however, I believe that having one in South Carolina is still a good idea. The most important facts that I learned would probably be about how secondhand smoke affects your body. I learned that not only does secondhand smoke cause you to have trouble breathing and to have a sore throat, but it causes cancer, lung disease, asthma, and many other life-threatening diseases. To me, the most surprising facts were about how big of a problem secondhand smoke is everywhere. There is about 126 million people exposed to secondhand smoke in the US currently (CDC-Data & Statistics). I also found the fact that secondhand smoke is so damaging to your health. I had no idea that secondhand smoke took such a toll on the overall quality of your life. Also how easy it is to avoid the problem entirely by just smoking outside and not around other nonsmokers. Another thing that was shocking to me was the amount of young children that are exposed to secondhand smoke. I can't understand why a parent would even think about smoking around their child, let alone do it. Some questions that I still have are, the obvious one, will South Carolina ever adopt the ban on smoking in public places that so many other states have? Would it help the cause if smokers were more educated on the affects of secondhand smoking? Would placing a ban on smoking in restaurants and other public places really reduce the amount of tourists that come to South Carolina? After conducting research on my topic, I still feel just as strongly if not more than I did when I first started out. I believe more now than ever that there should be a ban on smoking in public places because by just doing that the number of secondhand smoke related illnesses and deaths would be decreased immensely.