Smoking ban was not designed to persecute those engaged in a perfectly legal activity

I WISH to take issue with your editorial headlined ‘Tobacco revenue price hike will save more lives’ (Irish Examiner, January 6).

We were told the object of the smoking ban was to protect workers from the so-called environmental tobacco smoke. It was not designed to persecute smokers for engaging in a perfectly legal activity. If smoking rates are rising, it is because people are choosing to smoke.

The real cost of a pack of 20 cigarettes - including growing and harvesting the tobacco, manufacturing and packing the product and distribution through the various outlets - is about 30 cent.