Sir, - Any time I go to my local to enjoy a pint I am forced to ingest other people's smoke. This imposition of passive smoking has long been recognised as a serious health hazard.
Smoke-free areas in these establishments does not work because smoke is unable to read (yet). Air changing systems are not satisfactory either because smoking pollutes the atmosphere.
Smoking is not allowed on the Enterprise train service between Dublin and Belfast. Nor is it permitted on the DART or on buses. Why should smoking be still allowed in enclosed areas such as pubs or restaurants? Seven thousand people die in Ireland each year from smoking or smoke-related illnesses. If this is allowed to continue, 700,000 people will die in Ireland from smoking or smoke related illnesses by the turn of this century. The current figure for the world is 4 million deaths annually. All this so that tobacco companies can make profits. It is obscene.
Nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs there is. This is why smokers have great difficulty in kicking the habit. What is the point of the Garda operating an anti-drugs unit if tobacco companies are allowed to peddle the most addictive drug, nicotine, throughout the country, leaving death and destruction in their wake? Successive Irish governments have played footsie with the tobacco companies. Putting health warnings on cigarette packets will not deter anyone who is addicted to nicotine nor will raising the price have any effect.
The Minister for Health and Children, Mr Micheβl Martin, must act to protect the public from enforced passive smoking in all enclosed public places.
Whatever contribution tobacco companies make to the Exchequer, it is at an annual cost of 7,000 Irish deaths per annum. This is not acceptable. I see no reason why tobacco companies are not banished from this country. Who wants them? - Yours, etc.,
Micheβl ╙ Nuallβin, Monkstown, Co Dublin.