Madam, - I am a little puzzled by the economic arguments against smoking trotted out in the name of virtuous taxpayers. Surely smokers do us all a favour. They pay formidable taxes throughout their working lives on their drug of choice.
Conveniently for the rest of us, this often kills them off before they can draw a lengthy pension from State or employer or linger for decades in nursing homes.
In view of their enormous contribution to the economy surely a compromise on smoking in pubs can be reached. Pub staff who smoke could be employed to serve the smoking area which, given the traditional layout of pubs, could be the bar rather than lounge area.
This seems such an obvious compromise that it will probably never penetrate the minds of the new puritans who are destroying traditional Irish pub culture. - Yours, etc.,
DICK SPICER, Sugarloaf Crescent, Bray, Co Wicklow.
Madam, - I write to express my full support for Mr Michéal Martin's Bill to prohibit smoking in the workplace and in particular in bars and restaurants.
My only regret is that he did not see fit to ban smoking entirely and declare tobacco an illegal drug in this country; at the moment this may seem like an extreme measure, but I confidently predict that this will happen within the next 30 years and I intend to campaign actively towards that end.
In my role as a counsellor helping people to quit smoking for over 20 years at the Cork Smokers' Anonymous Group, I saw the devastation, physical and mental, that cigarette smoking caused to thousands of people and their relatives.
I felt then, and still feel, that the banning of smoking in public places is the most effective method of reducing the percentage of our population who smoke.
As secretary of the Irish Association of Non-Smokers I campaigned for smoke-free buses and cinemas and we helped to achieve those aims.
I would ask opponents of the present Bill to consider the following points:
1. Smoking is the single greatest preventable cause of premature death and serious illness in the world today and puts a huge strain on our already overstretched health services.
2. Smoking is the most intense form of air pollution to which the average person is exposed. The passive smoker (often a child) inhales, unwillingly, tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide and hundreds of other lethal and cancer-producing chemicals.
3. Cigarette smoke contains radioactive polonium and so is a radiation hazard. Very few smokers realise this.
4. Cigarettes are a gateway drug; most narcotic addicts start on cigarettes. If you don't smoke cigarettes you are less likely to try harder drugs.
5. Our current Minister for the Environment is a cigarette smoker. This strikes me as a contradiction.
I call on him to quit smoking immediately or resign his Cabinet post. - Yours, etc.,
DES MacHALE, Blackrock, Co Cork.