Tough Talk on Tobacco Doesn’t Go Far Enough

Re “Anti-Tobacco Ads Don’t Educate; They Just Vilify,” by Daniel Donahue, Commentary, April 11: If ever an industry is worthy of vilification, it surely is one that harms the health of every person who uses its product, with annual deaths exceeding 500,000 (in the U.S. alone) and burdening society annually with billions in health costs.

This lovely industry continues to pay TV and movie producers to have actors smoke. Why not rate TV and movies not only as to the amount of sex and violence in them but also by the amount of smoking? For instance, an A would be one without smoking, a B would be one with a minimum amount of smoking but intrinsic to the drama, a C would be one with some smoking not intrinsic to the drama and a D would be one with a great deal of smoking not related to the drama.

Stanley Marcus MD

Encino

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Donahue claims that California vilifies the tobacco industry. How can you vilify an industry that is responsible for more lives lost each and every week than were lost on 9/11? An industry whose leaders lied before Congress, that controlled the nicotine in its product so as to hook people, that went through all kinds of manipulations to circumvent the law. Vilify, hell -- they should lock up the Donahues and throw away the keys.

Jack Seidman

Long Beach