My father and his three brothers, all heavy smokers, died at relatively young ages as the direct result of health problems caused by their smoking. My mother died in her 60th year from coronary disease attributed to 35 years of inhaling Dad’s secondhand smoke. When his youngest brother died several years ago my wife and I saw the handwriting on the wall, threw away our cancer sticks and gave up that terrible, expensive habit. We did, however, continue to inhale cigarette smoke for a few years in businesses which we frequented that allowed smoking. We eventually stopped patronizing those businesses and began spending our money elsewhere. The one exception is bowling centers. Our love of bowling has forced us to endure the smoke but if a comprehensive, local non-smoking ordinance is not passed, we, along with several friends, will be forced to stop spending our money there also.

We have never been in the local casino or Shouts or any other local pub but would immediately begin spending our money there if they were smoke free.

I must laugh at signs posted in some businesses that state, “Thank you for not smoking.” Rather, those signs should say, “ABSOLUTELY NO SMOKING.” What gives anyone the right to make my life miserable with their smoke in order to satisfy their own addiction by sucking that poison into their own lungs then exhaling it into mine? If smokers refuse to visit businesses that prohibit smoking, that minor loss of revenue will be more than offset by the silent majority of new non-smoking customers.

Rex Rice

Middletown