Demonising smokers

I agree with Conny Dittrich's analysis of the anti-smoking hysteria (January 5). To her list of extremism against smokers, Ms Dittrich could have added the scaremongering slogans on cigarette boxes, the proposals to display disgusting pictures of diseased organs on tobacco products and the EU advertising campaign to ridicule smokers.

Every age finds some group or other to hound and harass and to demonise and ostracise. In this day and age, smokers are the scapegoats for the collective guilt of a polluted planet.

The absurd notion of "second-hand smoke" was the hysterical response of anti-smoking fanatics who couldn't persuade the whole world to quit smoking. So-called second-hand smoke poses only "a slight risk" according to the English scientist who first discovered the link between excessive smoking and lung cancer.

The scientist was interviewed on the BBC on December 30 last year. When asked if he would object if someone smoked in his presence, the scientist said that it was not his job to tell people what to do. His job was to provide the facts.

If only Mario Spiteri, of the Health Promotion Department, would follow that advice and not tell others what to do, and whom to exclude from bars and restaurants!