The Endicott Enquirer News from the Southern Tier

Letters to the editor – If Smoking Doesn’t Kill You Then Something Else Will

Smoking isn't our only worry

To the editor:

Here is some things to think about, although they probably will not change your mind: Chemicals in the air you breathe from cars, trucks, factories, even your home. Chemicals in the food you eat. Chemicals in the water you drink. Lead in your childrens toys.

People who have a few drinks and get behind the wheel of a car. People who shoot innocent people just because they are there. People selling drugs to our children. Guns in the hands of children. People driving and using their cell phones. Road rage. Speeding.

All these can change a person's life forever. But let's run the smokers out of Maryland and all will be well. As you can see, second-hand smoke should be the least of your worries. We all know smoking is a bad habit, but think about all these things - people will still die from one thing or the other.

Lisa Cosens
Smithsburg

Letters to the editor - The Herald-Mail Online - News for Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia

Do these people work in packs? Stating the obvious is not a good argument to make in order to convince people to love breathing second hand smoke. I guess since we all will die from something I ought not to try and eliminate one of those causes from the list? Just because you have a defeatist attitude doesn't mean that the rest of us don't want to do all we can to cross some of these things off our list.

We are getting close to doing this with smoking each day and that is a good thing. Lets address a few other of the items you mention in your letter that you use to argue I shouldn't care about smoking.

• Guns and Children - Once parents stop putting the guns in the hands of children we will be all set but I can't really control this any more than you. If people used their head a little bit more often that would solve this problem.
• Stop shopping at Wal-Mart and your kids toys will stop having lead in them. If you want cheaply made goods then be prepared for the consequences.
• Stop buying SUVs and reduce the amount of chemicals in the air you breath or reduce your power consumption and reduce the greenhouse gasses going into the atmosphere. Smoke is an air pollutant too as you might have guessed so your argument applies to the very thing you are arguing against as well.
• Buy organic food and discourage the use of Chemicals in what you eat. Again, if you want cheap food, be prepared to suffer the consequences.
• Educate your children about drugs, if you are worried about your kids then I would argue you haven't done enough to show them what happens when they are used.
• Filter your water, avoid the chemicals that you are worried about. Better yet, stop voting for big business republicans and vote for a democrat in Washington County that might actually care about the environment.

Lastly, smoking is not just a bad habit and if I guessed right you are probably a smoker who doesn't want to admit that what you do actually is killing your self and those around you. Just because you don't care about my health does not mean you have any right to take it away from me and if you think smoking doesn't do that, you'll find that you are terribly wring when you are 65, have cancer and can't breath.