SCMP – May 30, 2009
During the recent debate, in these columns, over the delayed additional restrictions on people smoking in public areas, the key point seems to have been overlooked – that is, it is a proven scientific fact that smoking makes people ill, in many cases very ill indeed. Hundreds of thousands of people die each year as a direct consequence of smoking, or of being obliged to inhale the poisonous fumes emitted by others.
We would all be aghast at the thought of allowing people to inject themselves with heroin, or to snort coke in public places. So why should tobacco control be claimed as being in a different category?
And quite apart from the health dangers to all concerned, non-smokers generally find it unpleasant to take a drink, or a meal, when surrounded by such fumes. The sooner that wider ranging tobacco-control measures are introduced (including the abandonment of duty free allowances for tobacco products), the sooner that the health of smokers and non-smokers alike will be endangered less.
Paul Surtees, Mid-Levels