The rights (ahem) of smokers

I tend to agree with the letters by Conny Dittrich (Anti-Smoking Hysteria, January 5) and John Guillaumier (Demonising Smokers, January 28).

Who are we to tell smokers where or when not to smoke? It is just plain rude to go up to someone and kindly ask them to stop smoking in a restaurant because the odour of the cigarette, the deathly perfume that it lets out, ruins our enjoyment of a good meal, not to mention turning our lungs into a black fishing net. I say let them smoke, let them ruin our lungs, let them cause damage to the health of an unborn baby still in the mother's womb - it is their life after all, right?

Second-hand smoke causes lung cancer? Absurd. None of our business anyway. Poor, poor smokers, the latest in a series of black sheep. It is rather ironic that they compare themselves to black sheep, seeing as how their lungs (and probably our lungs, the non-smoker) are blacker than hell itself.

I would like to praise all the public establishments which have kept the rule of no-smoking going in their establishments. It has made a great impact on my enjoyment.

To all those people who wish to smoke, I say go outside, smoke away 20 minutes of your life, discard of your cigarette end properly, and enjoy the rest of your decreasing days.