The smoking ban is one of the most debated topics in the history of humanity. On the one hand there are those who recognize the health risks and harmful factors of smoking cigarettes and on the other those who fight for their right to smoke and who say that the fiscal and financial benefits outweigh any limitations caused by smoking. Smoking causes many fatal diseases; the best known include cancer and heart disease. However, the tax benefits from smoking are large and substantial, raising large sums of money that go to the medical budget. Secondhand smoking is a big problem in Australia and poses great risks to the public. Yet the public should be able to have the right to smoke and have a choice. Many scientific studies have shown that smoking is a significant cause of many diseases including cancer of the lung, larynx, oral cavity, pharynx, esophagus, pancreas, bladder, kidney, cervix and stomach. Each inhalation of cigarette smoke contains mixtures of thousands of compounds including over 60 carcinogens (cancer-causing substances). Figure 1 shows the link between cigarette smoking and cancer. Tobacco is the main ingredient of the cigarette and contains many harmful substances such as tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide. Tar causes lung cancer and many other types of cancer. Tar coats the surface of the breathing tubes and alveoli in the lungs causing coughing and damage to the alveoli making gas exchange more difficult. Figure 1 shows the dramatic difference between a normal lung and a smoker's lung. Cells in the lining of the breathing tubes produce sticky mucus. Cells called cilia move mucus out of the lungs. Smoking and tar damage these cilia, so smokers are more likely to develop bronchitis. The nicotine in ci...... middle of paper ......should Cigarettes Be Illegal?, 2014 About.com, accessed March 25, 2014, .'Smokers deserve tolerance, not a ban, in outdoor parks 'open : Editorial Agenda 2013' 2013, The Oregonian, 6 November, accessed 24 March 2014, Smoking and health, 2014 BBC, accessed 25 March 2014, Why ban the sale of cigarettes? The Case for Abolition, 2013 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd., accessed 24 March 2014, “Why not get serious and just ban smoking?” 2013, The Age, 5 August, accessed 24 March 2014, .