Letter: Tobacco battle

Sir: Richard Evans (letter, 17 November) cites California as an example of "American-style" bans on smoking. California is the one state that most Americans wouldn't refer to as the norm for almost anything.

This is the state that stops people at its borders to confiscate "foreign" fruits and plants to prevent unwanted insects from infecting local plants. Nobody has been able to explain to me how they prevent these insects from flying across the border on their own.

Outsiders commonly refer to California as "the land of fruits and nuts".

DAVID McNICKLE

St Albans, Hertfordshire

The writer is from Cleveland, Ohio