Calabasas, California joined more than 700 cities across the country who have placed limits on outdoor smoking last week with one of the toughest smoking bans on the books.

Last week, the community of 25,000 people on the western fringes of Los Angeles outlawed smoking in all public places -- including restaurants, parks, bus stops and sidewalks -- by a unanimous vote. The Calabasas City Council will allow smoking in one's car or house as long as the windows are closed and no one nearby is being affected. Offenders face warnings, fines of up to $500 for repeat offenses and misdemeanor charges.

The law came just weeks after the California Air Resources Board declared second-hand smoke to be a toxic air contaminant that can lead to infections, lung cancer and death.

Proponents said this "groundbreaking public health law" will limit the harmful effects of second-hand smoke.

But located 27 miles west of Los Angeles, the smog capital of the country, maybe Calabasas community activists are targeting the wrong enemy. One individual's cigarette smoke is a miniscule fraction of the chemicals released from pollution, car exhaust and factory chemicals each day. There are much larger problems that deserve the attention of anti-smoking advocates.

By now, everyone knows smoking is bad for you, but the government does not have the right to legislate an individual's lifestyle choices.

Warnings from the Surgeon General decorate each pack of "cancer sticks," commercials from anti-smoking groups air repeatedly on many different television channels and most people aren't shy about reminding smokers of the detriments of nicotine and lung cancer.

Smokers get it, and it's their choice, not the government's.

Every citizen has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If a person who is informed of all the risk factors, chooses to put legal chemicals into their body, the government of Calabasas need only hold its breath and walk by.

And if you are standing on the sidewalk and someone's rogue cigarette smoke is getting in your eyes, walk away or tell them to move.

Nonsmokers are demanding that every public place accommodate their smoking preferences, while smokers are being denied every consideration.

It's time the government butts out.