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No ifs or buts, banning smoking in public places pays healthy dividends. A recent survey in Britain, which introduced such a ban a year ago, calculates that more than 400,000 smokers have given up the habit as a result. That is almost half a million people who no longer submit to the daily need for nicotine.
Smoking bans have been introduced or are being considered in the United Arab Emirates with a marked difference in air quality in places such as shopping malls where cigarettes no longer pollute the atmosphere.
Apart from the benefits to the ex-smoker, there are savings from reduced medical care and greater productivity at the workplace. There are still some who deny that smoking carries any health risk but the evidence does seem to point in that direction.
Banning smoking outright would never work, but prohibiting it in certain areas is an important step to helping people break the habit. The temptation to smoke is greatly reduced when it is prohibited by law.
But no law can replace common sense; Inhaling smoke is not the best way to a healthy lifestyle. It does not make sense to light up and that is not a smokescreen.
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