"Sanctimonious" ex-smoker writes

Bob writes: As an ex-smoker (yes i know we're the most sanctimonious) I think you guys are in denial. Smoking is vile and I don't know why i ever did it. It's an addiction and the only reason people past their early 20s smoke is because they can't find the strength to give it up. Pointing the finger at those who try and legislate against it and denying health problems associated with it, is what people in a state of desperation try to do. they can't cope with the problem, so they pretend it isn't one.

It's a darn hard struggle to give up, but with incentive (a daughter) and will power and theknowledge that the air i breath is now much cleaner and healthier and with the knowledge that although there's an addiction inside me still craving for a ciggie, i feel much better and fitter without the poison weed. get real, tobacco is disgusting, dangerous and those who don't want to inhale it shouldn't have to! I certainly don't want my child inhaling other people's smoke.

Ireland: another view

Regina writes: I am a smoker who moved to the UK from the Republic of Ireland two years ago. This was just before the ban came into effect over there. If businesses here in the UK want to know what effect the ban will have, they just need to ask retailers and the general public in Ireland. Pubs are half empty with those providing adequate smoking shelters doing the best trade. Numerous small coffee shops have closed down because, as we all know, it is the smokers who most often break for a 'coffee and a fag'.

Most people I speak to, when I return to Ireland, say that pubs are not the same and it is known that a lot of people choose to socialise in their own home. It has had a knock on effect on employment in the hospitality trade evidenced by my son who found it impossible to gain a job in the pub trade. Never heard of before!

The only positive outcome for me has been the delight of friends and relatives (the smokers, of course) when they come to visit me here in the UK and can smoke in comfort while having a drink, having finished a meal etc. It has make us emigrants feel more popular with our distant countrywomen/men!!

What about my (non-smoking) rights?

Natalie writes: I am a 25-year-old woman who loves to socialize and adores dancing. However, I have no social life. Why? Because of cigarettes. I suffer from asthma and a specific, severe allergy to cigarette smoke. You may think this allergy is unusual but it isn't. I know of others who suffer from similar allergies.

So, you speak of smokers rights but what about my rights? Why can't I have a drink with friends in my local pub? Why can't I go dancing in a nightclub (something I would love to do as I have been attending dance lessons since the age of 7)?

You say many pubs have non-smoking areas which is adequate provision. I say no. It only takes ONE person to light up a cigarette for it to fill a room with smoke. How many times do you think that I've put my trust in publicans and the great British public to adhere to non-smoking areas? I have tried many times, so that I can have a social life (a basic human right). However, on most occasions when I can find a table in the non-smoking section (you may not like this but they are usually very crowded with non-smokers) at least one person (usually drunk) lights up and spoils my evening.

Experience has shown me that it is pointless to inform bar staff (usually too busy or indifferent) and asking the smoker to either stub out or move out of the non-smoking section leads to a stream of abuse and can be a dangerous thing to do.

So-called 'non-smoking areas' are usually pathetically inadequate. Apparently, invisible walls that divide an open plan room into 'smoking' and 'non-smoking' are able to stop the smoke from floating into the non-smoking area. This is particularly amusing on a crowded Friday or Saturday night when the smoke hangs like a thick fog. It won't surprise you that I have never yet come across this type of invisible barrier that actually works.

Your habit/addiction/human right of smoking literally rules over my day to day life. Smoking can destroy a simple thing for me like going on holiday, eating in a restaurant, staying in a hotel or even popping to my local pub. However, you may be surprised to hear that I think that some smoking in public areas can be permitted - providing that the smoking area is in a separate, sealed room and that restaurant owners/publicans go to more lengths to stop people smoking in the non-smoking areas.

You may think that my medical conditions make my arguments worthless. But all of my female friends of my age group do not smoke. They get sick of returning from an evening out reeking of smoke with stinging red eyes. They do not necessarily think that all public smoking should be banned but support the adequate provision of spaces where we can have a choice - where we don't have to breathe in smoke or be smoked upon.

One final thought. I have a couple of male friends who smoke. We have debated this subject often. They want to smoke but understand (and agree) that other people shouldn't have to breathe in their smoke. One friend has spent time in Canada. You really have to want to smoke if you are prepared to stand outside in their freezing cold temperatures! I don't want to turn this into a feminist issue but such weather conditions will certainly separate the men from the boys!

Smokers please take responsibility for your choice - and that includes the choice of non-smokers. You live in an enlightened age where medical and scientific advancements have been able to warn you of the dangers of smoking and can also prolong the life of a smoker who has a disease caused by their habit. I wish my grandmother could have taken advantage of modern medicine. She might have beaten the cancer she developed from her habit of smoking.
Choice and adequate provision - MY basic human right - that is all I ask for.

No smoke without desire

Andy Marshall writes: Hi. I'm the author of There's No Smoke Without Desire, a self help course for those who smoke but who wish they could stop. I smoked for 37 years and for many of them I right proper enjoyed it. For some others I right proper didn't and it was fucking me over.

I am very pro everyone's right to smoke. In my book I do not advocate giving up smoking, I advocate doing just what you fucking well like. Smokers smoke because they want to smoke. They stop when they stop wanting to smoke. My book is about knowing what you want and getting what you want.

On the matter of smoking in pubs (something I cover in great depth in my book as it’s a stumbling point for most smokers trying to give up), surely the answer to this is far more simple than “I don't smoke - therefore you shouldn't” vs. “I smoke therefore you can fuck off”. Surely the answer lies in air conditioning. Make pubs use air conditioning to an agreed standard then you can smoke and I can enjoy a smoke free environment.

Smoking is simply a matter of choice. If you want to smoke, smoke; if you want to stop, stop. Everyone has the right to do what he wants as long as that doesn't impact prejudicially on others. If you don't know how to get what you want, read my book: http://www.tnswd.com/

Freedom under attack

NB writes: I saw somewhere on FOREST Online that David Hockney said the tobacco bans would destroy Bohemia. How right he is. There is an independence of spirit and indifference to conformity among those who might be described as 'Bohemians'. This is very inconvenient to social engineers. Political anti smokers know intuitively that to outlaw tobacco is to undermine dissent. Also, prohibitionists piously say they have the interests of working class people at heart.

George Orwell said in 1984 that the only hope lay with the 'proles'. (I write from memory). How useful to invade and destroy the traditions of the pubs and clubs they go to. After nearly 50 years of smoking I had to give up eight years ago for health reasons. But I fully support the freedoms which I believe are under attack.

Wanted: air purifier for the home

Ross writes: I'm currently looking for an air purifier for my home. I'm a single dad and my little girl comes to stay with me every weekend. I don't smoke in the house from Friday (she comes Sat morning) until I take her back to her mum on Sunday but I know it's not healthy her breathing in any lingering smoke.

I often smoke outside during the week for this reason but, let's be honest, that's not always great in this country with its weather and sometimes you want to sit down with a coffee and a fag. Our inclement climate is also the reason why my usual fallback of opening the window as often as possible isn't always advisable.

I'm trying to find a good, relatively-small, air purifier that will remove the smoke and the airborne tar. I live in a relatively small cottage so I don't need some massive industrial-sized unit and I don't smoke upstairs at all, so essentially it needs to cover the lounge and the kitchen which are joined.

I can find 1001 different "purifiers" on the Internet but, obviously, each has their benefits and my quite specific requirements aren't covered in the sales blurb! I'd appreciate any advice or pointers you can give. Of course, I could give up.

"Smokers are drug addicts"

Pam writes: I hope the Government will eventually see sense and ban smoking from all pubs and clubs. Smokers are pathetic drug addicts that need serious help in order to quit. Stopping them from smoking in public places should help to achieve that. If they are unwilling to quit then they should practice their filthy habit in their own privacy instead of poisoning the lungs of the majority of the public including pub workers who have little choice. Marijuana, crack cocaine and other drugs are highly illegal so smokers should be grateful that at least their drug is still allowed, despite being more dangerous than marijuana. So tobacco smokers should enclose themselves in their own private space and puff away to their hearts content, leaving us non-drug addicts to breathe cleaner air.

I may be dead next year

Anon writes: I was recently diagnosed with lung cancer. I'll probably be dead by next year. Think about it ...