Letter: What's stylish in smoking yourself to death?

Eleanor Bailey's eulogy to tobacco not only trivialises the harmful effects of smoking but perpetuates the myth that smoking confers creative skills and sociability on those who indulge in the habit.

The reference to a "swing back to pipe and cigar smoking" is unsubstantiated. There has been a steady decline in the consumption of all tobacco products in the UK for many years and there is nothing to indicate that this situation has changed.

Sadly, few people smoke for true pleasure: they smoke because they are addicted to nicotine. Why else would people continue to indulge in a habit which results in 111,000 deaths in the UK every year?

Amanda Sandford

Action on Smoking and Health

London SW1