Blame the Smokers

Re “Their Product Killed My Mother,” Voices, July 22: To Thomas J. Bauer and all of the other people who are blaming the tobacco companies for the death of their loved ones, I say hogwash. The person whom he should be most angry with is his mother, who made the choice to smoke in spite of the overwhelming evidence as early as the 1960s, when the surgeon general had warnings listed on every package of cigarettes stating clearly that smoking was harmful to your health.

The commercials that were run on TV by the heart and lung associations in the ‘60s were enough to make me quit smoking, and I’d been doing it for 10 years. For people to say that they couldn’t stop smoking because they were “addicted” is a cop-out. It is clear that smoking causes cancer and other diseases. Nobody should be winning lawsuits for these outrageous amounts of money because the tobacco companies “made them do it” nor should families be blaming anyone other than the smoker for the ultimate result of the choice.

GINNY BRESEE

Los Angeles