On Feb. 14, the BBC reported on a study by Hasselt University in Belgium about the effects of a phase of public smoking bans on premature births.
According to the article, the study of 600,000 births found three successive drops in the numbers of babies born prematurely. Each drop occurred after a phase of a three-prong public smoking ban was introduced.
The ban started in public places and most workplaces in 2006. Restaurants followed suit in 2007 and bars serving food banned smoking in 2010.
Exposure to tobacco smoke in the womb has been linked to lower birth weights and earlier deliveries. In addition, exposure to smoke can drastically affect a young child developmentally.
While most Americans agree with the notion that smoking around pregnant women or children is detrimental, Americans don’t seem too keen on enacting bans on ideas that have been proven to help public health.
For example: Do you remember the uproar after the proposed soda ban in New York City last year?
We all know giant sugary drinks are terrible for health. While I understand the opinion that adults should be able to make those choices for themselves, I am still perplexed by the amount of backlash Mayor Bloomberg received.
With the morbid proportions of the obesity epidemic, we should be doing everything we can to make healthy choices easier. An obese person is much more likely to develop diseases such as diabetes or suffer cardiac complications. Taxpayers spend an average of $190 billion a year on obesity-related medical bills, just as they spend billions on smoking-related health problems.
And then there is the issue of the people being affected. What about babies? Obviously, smoke is detrimental to an unborn baby, but did you know that a mother’s poor dietary and health decisions also influence a developing baby?
As taxpayers, shouldn’t we be encouraging government to be a force for good? Shouldn’t we embrace any entity that finally stands up and says that these health problems are affecting our country far more than anyone might think?
The fact of the matter is that though we would love to think people can make mature decisions for themselves, we cannot always expect them to. When these problems start influencing the unborn, those who have no choice in the matter, we must accept that things need to change.
Moral of the story: I understand the argument for personal liberty. I realize this is “‘Murica” and some people believe being American means being gluttonous, unhealthy and totally unrepentant. But personal rights have always been defined as the right to do whatever you want: so long as you aren’t hurting someone else. With the amount of tax dollars and secondhand effects of smoking and obesity, it is pretty safe to say we are hurting others with our poor health decisions. Doctors should be committing themselves to teaching healthy habits rather than writing prescriptions for medicines that don’t fix anything. People should be holding others accountable for the habits and health problems that are being passed on to children. And the government should do what it can to regulate the rotten health decisions that are crippling our nation.
