Madam, - I note, in an article by Georgina O'Halloran in your September 15th edition, that the indefatigable Dr Fenton Howell (formerly of ASH) is on the preaching trail again. He claims that there are more dangers to smoking in one's car than those of the alleged effects of environmental tobacco smoke.
He claims that the movements involved in smoking "distract drivers and. . .increase the risk of an accident". From the depths of his wisdom, he advises: "If you smoke, have one before getting into the car or after getting out of it."
On what research does he base this latest piece of advice? Hardly as much, I would think, as has been claimed in the case of the health effects of passive smoking. (Not one of the many studies I have read on these effects was carried out under the kind of controlled conditions normally associated with studies of causation, but I know that political correctness now leaves no room for such rational questioning.)
If, as I suspect, his advice is based on simple anecdotal observation, then why doesn't he go the whole hog and advise: "If you must have a conversation with a passenger, then have it before getting into the car or after getting out of it"? Or, "If you must listen to the radio. . . etc. etc."?
Or, in the final analysis, why doesn't he advise us not to drive cars (an inherently dangerous activity) at all, or not to get out of bed in the morning?
Personally, I prefer to make such decisions without the interference of gratuitous nannyism. - Yours, etc.,
ALAN DUKES, Tully West, Co Kildare.