IELTS Preparation: ban smoking in pubic Topic: Some businesses now say that no one can smoke cigarettes in any of their offices. Some governments have banned smoking in all public places. This is a good idea but it takes away some of our freedom. Do you agree or disagree? Nowadays, many businesses and governments have forbidden smoking in offices and public places. This has sparked off an intense debate. Although some people claim that this deprives people’s freedom, I personally support banning smoking in public areas. People who are against banning smoking claim that it takes away people’s freedom. This means people have the right to choose smoking even though smoking is harmful to their health. However, this assertion has some problems. To begin with, protecting smokers’ rights to smoke wherever they like is hurting non-smokers’ right. It is because medical research have told us that taking too much second-hand smoke could have detrimental influence on non-smokers, causing asthma, lung cancer or other diseases. If smokers are allowed to smoke in public places, non-smokers lose the right to stay in a healthy environment. Moreover, regulations only forbid smoking in public areas rather than private places. This means smokers are still permitted to smoke in their own home or other private occasions, since this is a personal choice and businesses and governments respect personal freedom. Yet others support banning smoking because it is harmful to individuals and society. For one thing, advocates argue that public places should be set non-smoking. This is because human freedom should be protected, provided that it does not deprive other people’s freedom. In this smoking-or-not case, public places belong to all citizens, including non-smokers. Therefore, smoking should be forbidden as smokers would take non-smokers freedom of not being hurt health away. For another, it is advisable to suggest people quit smoking. Mounting evidence shows that smoking is related to many aspiratory such as asthma, which would cause governments’ health care expenditure on those people grows. Hence, forbidding smoking is beneficial to individuals and society. To conclude, I am convinced that smoking in public areas should be banned while smoking in private places is advised to quit, though not compulsory since smoking is harmful to individuals and society as well.