Curbs target smoke and not the smoker

THE headline on a recent letter claimed that “smoking strategy is unnecessarily hardline” (Irish Examiner, October 23). I must reply that it is not.

Toxic tobacco smoke kills hundreds of thousands of innocent people around the world every year. This is genocide and cannot be acceptable under any circumstances.

Smoking should rightly be prohibited in all public places and workplaces.

It’s not the smokers, but the lethal tobacco smoke that has been given the boot. No-one is forcing any person out into the cold, just the killer tobacco smoke.

I am very concerned about the welfare of everyone, including smokers. I am concerned that the tobacco companies deprived smokers of their true right to a product which is not addictive, defective and lethal (to the user and to others), when used as intended. Why is it that I rarely see any letters about that travesty?

Dave Johnson

2270 Canyonwood Drive

Arlington

Texas 76012

United States