To the Editor:
Without addressing either the aesthetic or constitutional issues raised by Mr. Turley in his Op-Ed "A Bad Canadian Law..." (Feb. 28), I take strong issue with several of his points on smoking and health:
Contrary to Mr. Turley's assertion, few smokers are aware of the range of adverse health effects to which smoking exposes them, some of which are irreversible. A "vast majority" may suspect that smoking "is no good for me," but that hardly qualifies as an informed consumer. Smokers are unaware, for example, of tobacco's role in the causation of blindness and cervical cancer. Also, the smokers who "knowingly assume those risks" are overwhelmingly teenagers when they make that "choice," which becomes a lifelong addiction in the majority. Kids are not endowed with sufficient long-term judgment to make that decision, even if they were fully informed of the risks involved. I agree with Mr. Turley: heart disease is the leading cause of death in America. But the leading preventable cause of heart disease is smoking, not "fast food," as he suggests.
Personally, I am much more "irritated" by the common lunchtime sight of schoolkids smoking than I am by the specter of cancerous lungs. I hope my kids' lungs don't fall victim to that fate.
