Smoking Ban

1.

In text 1, Robin Mckie who is a science editor of the British newspaper The observer argues that the introduction of smoke bans will have a major improvement on the health situation England are struggling under. Robin Mckie uses several scientific studies from different medical journals to substantiate his claim.

One of the examples he use is from Helena, Montana where the implementation of smoking ban in 2002 showed that the heart attack fell by 40 per cent compared to the past years. He uses as well cities in Italy, Colorado and Ohio where the heart attacks also were curtailed after the bans were imposed.

Mckie talks about all the favorable sides of the introduction to the smoking bans and he's not only seeing an upcoming improvement to the smoker's health, but also for the non-smokers. who are exposed to passive smoking. According to The European Commission, Britain should have the highest percent of people in Europe, who wants to quit smoking. 46 per cent of the citizens are trying to stop, and more than 70 per cent wants to stop. Unfortunately there are still ten million smokers in Britain, so it's impossible to make everybody quit their habit, but according to Robin McKie the smoking ban are pointing the situation in the right direction.

A. N. Wilson who is a British novelist and biographer has a diametrically different opinion at the impose of the smoking ban, which is seen in text 2. He doesn't seem to get affected by the health risks that are linked to smoking and he's making it clear that when he personal quit smoking in phases it's not because of health reasons, but only to show himself that he can. What he worries about is the symbol of smoking, which he connects with a list of legendary British writers through the history, who all were smokers. He thinks of them as heroic artist and smoking cigarettes or pipes in a bar with friends or while writing down their poetry was a part of the whole puzzle. Now the older smokers are forced to "sit melancholily at home with their six-pack and watch telly" instead of sitting on bars acting more social. Wilson is most of all afraid that the consequences of the smoking bans will be a threat to the future literature and that it might hurt the culture diversity of the country.

Text 3 is written by Simon Jenkins, who is a British newspaper columnist. He's not a fan of smoking and that's why he tries to avoid smoking places, but it doesn't bother him. What bothers him is the abnormal attention that the government is putting at the vote to ban smoking in public places, like if it was a question between life and death. He gives a political view on the smoking ban and refers to members of Parliament, which also makes it at bit more different compared to the other texts. Jenkins thinks that there should be agreement about the restriction by those it concern and therefore he disagrees with the government and does not feel that smoking should be banned in public places by law.

2.

The use of exaggeration and irony is often effective when a person wants to make a statement or in this case - criticizing MPs implementation of smoking bans. It's provocative and does easily catch the reader's attention.

These two means are not