Fear of smoking is driving the ban

EWAN DUFFY (Irish Examiner letters, November 10), who was horrified to see actual smokers having a cigarette in Dublin recently, is merely showing the intolerance of his own phobia.

Capnophobia and fumiphobia are two terms that refer to an intense hatred or fear of smoking. The dictionary defines a phobia as “an irrational or very powerful fear and dislike of something”.

The operative word here is ‘irrational’ - something that over one million smokers in Ireland are victims of.