Crafty smokescreen for profits

MAT Coward writes (M Star May 28) of a "much-quoted" figure giving an average age difference at death of smokers and non-smokers of 6.5 years.

It would seem that this statistic has not been quoted enough for me to be familiar with it.

I would therefore be very interested to know the source of the figure and more details about the research from which it has been derived.

According to statistics from Action on Smoking and Health, a non-political pressure group, smoking causes almost 90 per cent of deaths from lung cancer, around 80 per cent of deaths from bronchitis and emphysema and around 17 per cent of deaths from heart disease.

About one-third of all cancer deaths can be attributed to smoking (www.ash.org.uk).

Mat then tries to elevate the issue to a party political one, by informing us that the main cause of unnecessary death in today's world is imperialism.

I am quite aware that we are surviving under the highest stage of capitalism.

This is evidenced by the fact that the multinational tobacco industry has a long history of denying the health risks of smoking and of obscuring the truth about this pernicious drug to deceive smokers, thereby enhancing their profits.

But I suppose that Mat et al believe that these avaricious capitalists are helping to protect working-class culture.

JIM DYMOND
Aldershot