ANNE BYRNE,
Madam, - I think smokers are getting a very raw deal. They are being treated like lepers and I think it is most unfair. No one beats the bejasus out of his wife and children just because he has had a few smokes on the way home, so why are smokers getting such a bad press when over-indulgence in alcohol is doing far more damage to family life? Health authorities claim that addiction to smoking is causing their services vast amounts of cash; are alcohol-related problems not costing far more? But because alcohol brings in much more cash to the Exchequer and is making a lot of pub owners and business people rich, there is silence about the terrible violence and damage that excess drinking does to home and work.
I am a non-smoker myself but I think that smokers should unite and speak up for themselves.
I know of one workplace which has "kindly" provided a windowless, unvented, low-roofed vault 15 feet square for employees who wish to smoke. Is this Christian? - Yours, etc.,
ANNE BYRNE,
Pearse House,
Dublin 2.