Tomorrow's codswallop

New Internationalist, Sept, 2004 by Daniel Margolis

Hooked on tobacco (NI 369) bored me stiff. I have never smoked but I defend the right of everybody to do so. No-one has ever been forced to smoke by a pistol to their necks.

If anything tempts me to start even now (at the age of 80) it is the constant agitation. To listen to it, one would think that in the 1930s and 1940s, when most people smoked, nobody could have lived till middle age.

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Regarding the medical argument, I am very cynical. Doctors and journalists are influenced by fashion and propaganda almost as much as the lay person. Today's Holy Writ often becomes tomorrow's codswallop. Next year we may be told to eat more fat--cholesterol is good for you. Everyone is responsible for their own actions--forget the disgusting American slogan 'You can always sue someone'.

Daniel Margolis Essex, England

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