Question: why are people aloud to smoke in public? people could have lung problems or could have cancer and people just walk past smoking and blowing the smoke in your face?

Priya Hari answered on 18 Jun 2015:

Thankfully, at least now there are more restrictions than there used to be. People could literally smoke anywhere before (inside and outside), but now it is illegal to smoke in most spaces open to the public, such as schools, pubs, restaurants and hospitals. I agree with you that it is still awful that you could be, for example standing at a bus stop, and the person next to you is smoking but I guess the theory is that out in the open the smoke is more likely to quickly diffuse out. At the moment though, if you were to totally ban smoking outside, then the only place people could smoke would be their own houses and that would be even worse for them and everyone, such as children. Unless, smoking became totally illegal, I think it would be impossible to stop people smoking in public.