Yes I am a smoker and by choice. I enjoy having a smoke when I sit down after a meal, at the bar with friends etc and I am still of the opinion that it is a matter of choice for the individual and not for Government to dictate what will and wont be.

I have lived and worked in many countries around the world, and some of those have a much higher %age rate of smokers than the UK has, yet they have a lesser %age fatality rate of people dying from smoking related illnesses than the UK has. Why is that ? Is it the diet that these people have, is it the man made preservatives that are infiltrating the food that you buy in the supermarket every day, who knows, but the evidence for me is totally inconclusive.

FOREST sent the results of their Populus poll to no fewer than 22,000 regional and national politicians, including local councillors, AMs (Welsh Assembly), MSPs (Scottish Parliament), MPs and members of the House of Lords. The results, which are presented in a six-page brochure, are accompanied by a letter from director Simon Clark who writes:

"Following the ban on tobacco advertising, the anti-smoking lobby has been vociferous in demanding another ban - this time on smoking in public places. So far, government ministers have said there are no plans for a national smoking ban, though they may consider giving powers to local councils to ban smoking in public places in their areas ...

"An independent poll of 10,000 people in ten regions across Britain has just been carried out. The findings show that seven out of ten people (74%) do NOT support a blanket ban on smoking in pubs and bars. In fact the comprehensive, regionally representative survey by Populus found that only 24% of people thought smoking should be banned completely in pubs, clubs and bars. A large majority undoubtedly want improvements - more smoke-free areas and well-ventilated pubs - but they want choice, not an outright ban.

"Another key focus of the [Fight For Choice] campaign is whether smoking policies in pubs, bars and clubs should continue to be set by the management or whether the UK should blindly follow the example of New York and Ireland and ban smoking completely, against the wishes of most people in the hospitality industry. The survey found that almost two thirds of people (63%) believe policies on smoking should be left to the owners and managers of individual premises, rather than local councils (21%) or central government (14%).

"The hospitality industry in the UK has worked hard to improve ventilation and to create more non-smoking areas and nonsmoking pubs and restaurants. Further progress in these areas will provide real choice for smokers and non-smokers alike."

LIKE THE overwhelming majority of smokers, FOREST understands and fully accepts the health risks of smoking and the nature of that risk. Indeed, the health risks have been known for so long (the US Surgeon General first announced a link between smoking and lung cancer in 1964) there cannot be a sane adult in the UK who is not aware of the potential danger.

We do however have a problem with the tactics adopted by politicians and the health industry who routinely use the health argument to say they are 'protecting' smokers from themselves. The health argument is then presented in one of several ways.

The first is to frighten smokers into believing that they will almost certainly die before their time ('Quit or die'). The problem with this message is that it is so obviously false. As a great many families (and even doctors) will testify, many smokers live a long and healthy life, sometimes outliving their non-smoking peers.

Moreover, with one major exception (lung cancer), none of the illnesses described as 'smoking-related' is exclusive to smokers and all are primarily diseases of the elderly. In reality, two-thirds of all deaths in the UK are caused by 'smoking-related diseases', despite the fact that only half of those people actually smoke.

Other factors

Something else therefore must be causing these 'smoking-related diseases' (and, no, it's not passive smoking!) which is unrelated to smoking - diet, perhaps, or genetic factors, or even general lifestyle (lack of exercise, for example). Or maybe (horror of horrors) it's just old age.

One disease that smoking cannot ignore is lung cancer for the simple reason that it very, very rarely afflicts non-smokers. (The average annual risk of a non-smoker getting lung cancer has been calculated to be 0.01%.) Even for smokers, however, the quit or die message seems a bit excessive. According to Professor Sir Richard Doll (the man who first discovered a correlation between smoking and lung cancer in the 1950s) research suggests that if you start smoking as a teenager and quit aged 30, the risk of developing lung cancer is 2%; give up at 50 and the risk goes up to 8%; give up at 70 (by which time you have been smoking for more than 50 years) and the risk rises to 16%.

Surprised? Let's face it, these figures paint a rather different picture from the anti-smoking lobby which gives the impression that most if not all smokers are going to die a horrible, agonising death well before their time. Again, this isn't to deny the health risks, but let's get this in perspective. In spite of what some people would have you believe, smoking is not a one-way ticket to Death Row.

Beneficial qualities

Revealingly, the anti-smoking lobby refuses point blank to acknowledge that smoking has any beneficial qualities whatsoever. The health risks of smoking may outweight the health risks of stress, for example, but there are many smokers who believe passionately that the former helps reduce the latter.

Likewise, many smokers believe (rightly or wrongly) that smoking (and the occasional smoking break) helps improve their concentration and makes them more efficient at work. Meanwhile, instead of welcoming research which suggests that smoking may help ward off Alzheimer's Disease (one of most debilitating illnesses known to man), the anti-smokers pour scorn on the idea. Why?

Finally, there is a clear lack of perspective in the smoking debate, a factor most clearly illustrated by the anti-smokers' complaint that James Bond, in the 2002 film Die Another Day, was seen smoking a cigar (in Cuba!). The fact that they had no problem with 007 having casual, unprotected sex, driving dangerously fast or being in possession of a loaded gun (with intent to kill!) reveals more about their narrow-mindeded obsession than it does about the dangers of smoking.