Smoking cigarettes is extremely bad for your health. If people want to hurt themselves, they can, but when it affects the health of non-smokers, something is wrong.

This is why the city commission should reconsider passing a city-wide ordinance that would totally ban smoking indoors.

Secondhand smoke has been labeled as a Class A carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency. This means nonsmokers can get lung cancer from cigarette smoke.

The EPA estimates 3,000 nonsmokers each year die from lung cancer related to secondhand-smoke exposure.

The EPA also estimates 150,000 to 300,000 children younger than 18 months get pneumonia or bronchitis from breathing secondhand smoke.

Yes, nonsmokers who wish to lead healthy lives can choose not to enter a smoking establishment, but why should smokers be the only ones who can enjoy those places?

If smoking was permitted outside an establishment and not inside, smokers and nonsmokers alike could enjoy the clean air and the entertainment Manhattan businesses and restaurants have to offer.

If this is not a problem, then why has smoking been banned in places like every classroom on campus, the K-State Student Union and Bramlage Coliseum, to name a few?

Those who wish to lead healthy lives should be allowed to enter and enjoy the same establishments as those who choose not to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

What a person does outside is his or her own decision, but everyone inside an establishment should be entitled to the same clean air.