Editor;
Agreed Mr Arnone (MB 4/7) that this is now boring but it is you who is missing the point.
The point is that cigarette smoking is repulsive and dangerous but nobody objects to your doing it at home or away from others. After all, I don’t suppose you would come and sit next to me and break wind, so why would you puff smoke into my face which is even more objectionable and also harmful?
Yes, we all contribute towards pollution and we all pay the price, but this is miniscule when compared to the effects of smoking as witnessed by the dramatic fall in some smoking related diseases after the introduction of stiffer controls a few year’s ago. Moreover, there is a continual attempt to lessen the pollution; whereas the tobacco industry makes its product more harmful, more addictive and more appealing to children. Second and third hand smoke is now far more unpleasant and dangerous than ever before.
If anyone appeared with a cigarette to a person who had never seen one and said, ‘set it on fire and inhale the smoke’, he would be thought to be a joker or wildly insane.
The point is that smoking is contrary to nature, has no useful purpose, holds land to hostage, is a waste of money and despite taxation is a drag on the economy. Hardly anyone in any meaningful position in society smokes today.
Go and smoke yourself to death on your own by all means but don’t forget that you are then supporting an industry that is at least as evil as that of the illegal drug trade, but more dishonest.
MN
