Dear PV,

While I'm not a smoker, having giving up the habit nearly 40 years ago, I wonder about all these anti-smoking efforts. Yes, people should not smoke, but should have a right to do so. Actually, it's a patriotic duty these days seeing that governments across the country, including Georgia, are depending more and more on tax revenues from smoking and other "sins" such as drinking.

It is established that pregnant women shouldn't smoke. I would like to see the science that establishes a definite link between secondhand smoke and serious disease. Yes, it's irritating and annoying. But is it really a serious health hazard? "Many studies" don't cut it for me.

I spent over 22 years in the Army exposed to secondhand smoke on a daily basis without noticeable side effects. My mother was around secondhand smoke for over 40 years of marriage and her three children, including me, were raised in an environment of secondhand smoke, and we all smoked for awhile after becoming adults. Yet none of us show any ill-effects.

How is it that generations of Americans survived during all these years of smoking and secondhand smoke?

Don't get me wrong. As I stated I don't like smoking and prefer to sit in the non-smoking section of a restaurant. (There are so few smokers today that the non-smoking section is the best place to get a table when all the rest are filled.) But I really think we're going overboard in passing laws restricting the habit. Seems to me what is happening is that many don't like smoking and are using their power to stamp out a behavior they disapprove of and use public health as a reason.

Edward A. Watkins
Decatur, GA

PV's Response: Regarding "studies," we're not much for studies either. However, we are in favor of anecdotal evidence. In a fire, most people die, not because of being burnt to death, but due to inhaling smoke. And, while some may argue that the person died because of an overabundance of smoke, the fact is, smoke is smoke, and humans do not survive very well inahling smoke.

You cite that your mother and yourself and your 2 siblings all lived around secondhand smoke and you have seen no ill effects. Anyone have any problem with asthma in your family? Anyone allergic to anything? Anyone on any allergic medicine? Anyone lost their ability to taste things? Anyone lost their sense of smell? Anyone have upper-respiratory problems? Anyone have cancer?

If you and your kids and your siblings' kids are all perfect specimens of homo sapiens, then that only means you're not affected by the secondhand smoke. That does not mean that other folks not blessed with such perfect human bodies wouldn't be susceptible.