The Feb. 21 editorial "Third strike against smoking" was informative and nonjudgmental until the last part. There, the editor expressed his hope that, through the voices and spending habits of worried parents, smoking would be even more restricted than it already is.
Sure smoking is bad for you, and secondhand smoke can give you cancer, too. But is thirdhand smoke threatening our children now? Go and check out how many children die of lung cancer, and how many children die, for example, of traffic-related accidents. Why are drivers so often forgiven and smokers crucified? I am surprised that The Japan Times sides with the antismoking facists. As a nonsmoker, not an antismoker, I truly believe that there are far more threatening things to our health and happiness than smokers. When did the tolerance stop and the intolerance begin, and where will it stop?