Just as the government regulates the pollution that comes out of a factory's smokestack or a car's tailpipe, it should regulate the pollution that comes from the end of a cigarette.
This analogy is fundamentally flawed, however. Unlike air pollution, secondhand smoke on private property is not imposed on people against their will. If you choose to eat in a restaurant, fly in an airplane, or work in an office where smoking is permitted, you thereby consent to secondhand-smoke exposure. You may not like it; you may even worry that it will increase your risk of lung cancer. But you have implicitly decided that the annoyance and the possible risk are outweighed by the benefits of eating in that restaurant, flying on that airplane, or working in that office.
If, on the other hand, you refuse to enter any enclosed space where smoking is allowed, you send a signal to the airlines, the restaurateurs, and the employers. If there are enough people like you, some businesses will ban smoking, while others will segregate smokers from nonsmokers. That is why businesses restrict smoking even in the absence of government-imposed regulations. But in the free market, unlike in some cost-benefit analyses, smokers count too. That is why some businesses continue to permit smoking.
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