Anti-Cigarette Decisions and Smoking Bans

Fein and Meese correctly argue that, since people smoke voluntarily, tobacco companies should not be held responsible for deaths resulting from their products. Beyond this point, however, their column in an outright smoke screen, obviously biased towards the tobacco industry.

The anti-cigarette campaigns we are now seeing are hardly unfair--they tell no lies; attack no specific brand or company--they do have the advantage of television time, which is unavailable to the tobacco industry.

The simple facts are that cigarettes are toxic. They slowly poison those who smoke them, and by polluting the surrounding air, those who don’t. Left burning, they damage or destroy property, and can cause potentially fatal fires.

People still have the right to reap the “sensual, psychological, and emotional benefits derived from cigarettes” (as the authors describe it)--nobody’s trying to change that.

If the tobacco industry wishes to avert bad publicity and cut losses, it should develop safer, less toxic products rather than hire famous minions to write absurd columns, defending already shaky ground.

DOUGLAS W. MILLHOFF

Los Angeles