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Nonsense. My wife and I were both heavy smokers, and all our kids were excellent athletes. Your attempts to extrapolate from your own physical shortcomings to the rest of the world exemplifies that very "self-centeredness" that you decry. Sure, smoking cuts down on the wind of smokers, but that's their decision to make, not yours, and most certainly not the government's.

My wife and I were both heavy smokers, and all our kids were excellent athletes.

Gary Anderson

My name is Gary Anderson and I suffer from emphysema. I have just retired from my position as a University Professor and Administrator.
Too intelligent to smoke? Obviously not. Age, sex, economic status, profession, and other factors do not appear to have any relationship to one's becoming a smoker or not.

I started smoking when I was eighteen, even though I was an athlete. "Everyone smokes" was the concept, so I joined the group. I smoked for almost forty years, with a total of three packages a day being the standard when I was entered into a hospital with congestive heart failure and pneumonia. At that time, I was told I had emphysema and must quit smoking. I did for two weeks, and then, knowing that this was an affliction for other people and wouldn't be a problem for me, I began to smoke again.

One year later I had to return to the hospital. I could not breathe without assistance of oxygen that flowed directly into my nose through a tube attachment. I still have that hose in my nose. I can not walk without effort, and even then must have a hand carried cylinder of oxygen with a hose attached which is inserted in my nose. At my home, we have a large machine which has a long hose attached to it so that I may walk around the house. This continues for twenty-four hours each day.

My wife and I had planned to travel when I retired, but now that is sharply curtailed because of the problems of obtaining and using oxygen cylinders. Also, I never really feel good like I did.

This is a major problem for me, but it is minor compared to my real problem---my youngest daughter smokes. "Everybody does" and "Daddy does, so it must be all right," was her thought. She still smokes. This affliction that I have will never happen to her! It does happen, and it will happen, unless she quits. Please, don't smoke.

Gary W Anderson EdD gwa0001@unt.edu We regret to advise that Gary passed on to our Lord on July 12th, 2001

You missed the point - I had no inherent physical shortcomings. I was basically ill during that time. That's why (though I had no intention of being one) I made such a good "test case," if you will. Because the households I moved between were in the same neighborhood with the same air and water supply and with the same diet from the same distributors, chance of a spurious correlation is cut down to insignificance. The literature on the effects (besides cancer, assuming you believe this report) of second hand smoke is considerable and I'm not quite going to buy that physicians making $150K to $250K per year have all been bought off by some vast anti-tobacco wing conspiracy. See, for example, the statements of Dr. Martha White, Director of Research, Institute for Asthma and Allergy: "Smoking as well as exposure to second-hand smoke are both triggers for asthma. It can also increase the risk of developing asthma."

Now what are the odds any particular person's kids are going to get it? Not that high. I guess they just have to make a decision based on exactly how much pleasure it gives the person and how much of a risk it's worth.

In the end though you are right as it is for individual parents to make the right choice. Any allusion to government involvement I made was absolutely ill-conceived and in conflict with my otherwise consistent suspicion of government intervention.