Madam, - In Germany they don't persecute smokers, so people there don't talk about smoking and the media don't go on about it. As a pipe-smoker I appreciated this during the 10 days I spent there last month. The experience made me sharply aware on my air journey from Frankfurt to Dublin of the American-style obsession with smoking which has taken hold of Ireland and, in particular, of the harsh, puritanically aggressive tones in which it is expressed.
On the Aer Lingus plane a hostess announced that it was "illegal to smoke on this plane". In The Irish Times of the day, on page 8, a headline stated: "One death each minute in EU from smoking, group told". Michael O'Shea of the Irish Heart Foundation was quoted as saying that in the EU each year (read this slowly) 650,000 people die as a result of "smoking-related illnesses", 7,000 of these in the Republic. On the editorial page a long leading article used the Bush word in its heading: "War against smoking". In the Motors section of the paper a heading read: "Company drivers flout smoking ban" (i.e. smoke when driving alone).
This piece mentioned that in its first year the Irish ban on smoking had been "a resounding success which will save [ read this slowly] up to 5,000 lives a year". On arrival in Dublin airport, the first notice I read threatened that anyone smoking in the airport could be fined "up to €3000". Certainly, for smokers, it was not Ireland, but Germany "of the welcomes"!
In the US, Ireland and a few other countries, powerful non-smoking élites tell the public that many thousands of deaths are caused by being in the vicinity of smokers. Probably a fair number of these people believe the figures they cite. But an observable fact shows that most people do not believe them. In Western countries smokers are a minority, but whenever cafés, bars or restaurants provide spaces for smokers and non-smokers, the number of people in the smoking section far exceeds the number in the non-smoking area.
There is only one way in which what seems a lie to most people can be proven to be the truth; but we have seen no sign of its being used. It must be shown that the persecution of smokers reduces the annual statistics for serious illnesses and deaths.
It must be shown that actual progress results - that, for instance, Americans are by now much healthier than Germans and that, as each year progresses, the Irish health statistics are better than for the previous year and put Germany, France and Spain to shame. In other words, we have had enough of figures about so many deaths per minute, grasped out of the air, and believed only by the few who believe what they read in newspapers.
The persecution of smokers must be shown by statistical facts to be a successful health policy. Open-minded, eager for the truth, and smoking my pipe (I swear) in private, I await such evidence. - Yours, etc.,
DESMOND FENNELL, Parson Court, Maynooth, Co Kildare.