Has the ban on public smoking really made us healthier?

From: S A Simon, Leeds.

IT was five years yesterday since the smoking ban came in and what has it achieved? It has achieved absolutely nothing apart from the acceleration of the closure of pubs and working men’s clubs – here below are some questions with my answers:

Has anyone ever died from passive smoking? Answer no, please phone up the Health and Safety Executive who will confirm this. Roy Castle, whom everyone believed to have died from passive smoking, was, believe it or not, an ex smoker himself.

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Who makes money out of a smoking ban? Answer, the pharmaceutical companies who have funded anti-smoking organisations for a number of years, go into a chemist and you will see a whole array of anti smoking products, it is a multi-million pound business.

Has the smoking ban accelerated the closures of pubs? Answer: yes, it has. For those in denial, why has the valuation officer allowed rating reductions because of the smoking ban?

Does smoking cost the NHS money? No, because the revenue raised from tobacco far exceeds any costs to the NHS.

Since the smoking ban came in, the anti-smoking lobby will say less people are now smoking. How do they know this because the cost of cigarettes has gone up so dramatically that people are now buying their cigarettes from abroad?

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Is the increase in the purchase of a packet of cigarettes beneficial? No, there are now more counterfeit cigarettes flooding the market.

Are smokers being persecuted? Yes, the prime example of this is that in certain councils even if you smoke one cigarette a day you are not allowed to adopt a child.

Since the smoking ban has come in, the anti-smoking lobby has pushed the boat out further, every month we have suggestions from them to make the smoking ban more rigid, they have failed, they should understand that people will quit smoking when they want to not when they’re told to.

Happiness makes people healthy, not the other way round.