Editor;
Not only is smoking a disgusting, demeaning and stinking habit; it kills millions every year and almost half a million in the USA alone according to the surgeon general. It is, indeed, the silent killer.
Mr. Arnone being far more intelligent and better educated than the majority of smokers may just be unaware of the rudeness, lawlessness and sheer lack of courtesy exhibited by the typical smoker. However, he obviously has a mental block when it comes to smoking!
The US surgeon general’s latest report says that despite the many gains in reducing the risks over the past half century, researchers keep finding new and insidious ways in which smoking is harming the smokers themselves and non smokers who breathe in the toxic fumes. Amongst many other things the report identifies exposure to secondhand smoke as a cause of strokes and explains that the increase of adenocarcinoma of the lung is the result of changes in the design of cigarettes.
The growing of tobacco is the same as the growing of poppies in Afghanistan, Khat in The Yemen and hash in Wales or North Africa and the industry is no different to the illegal drug business; though it kills far more people and creates far more disease. Ultimately, governments will have to legislate against tobacco, restrict it to properly licensed outlets for registered addicts and prohibit its use in all public places.
MN
