invisible, unsmellable toxic fumes

Maude is a very sweet young woman whose life, like those of all social smokers, was turned upside down by smoking bans and she maintains that there’s more danger from fumes we can’t see or smell than those we can.

"People are so dumb that they're led to believe that if you can't smell or see something it has to be harmless," sighs Maude, "and the petroleum, plastics and chemical industries promote this myth in order to get away with murder.”

"The anti-smoking lobby has deliberately prevented tobacco manufactures from producing a sweet smelling smoke -- and making the smoke less visible -- because it knows that the smell and visibility of tobacco smoke is its trump card," says Maude, “and just like weapons of mass destruction and global warming, the government has lied to us about the health hazards to others of second hand smoke – it cannot produce epidemiological evidence to link levels of exposure to SHS to the raised risk of contracting specific diseases.”

"I am pleased that the campaign group Freedom2Choose has launched a legal challenge to the smoking ban on the basis that it contravenes the European Convention on Human Rights, and I hope the group can also dispel the myth that all smokers are arrogant and selfish and don't care about the health of other people."

"Sure there are some arrogant and selfish smokers who toss butts, smoke around their own children and clearly don't care about the health of others," says Maude, "but most smokers I know are the most considerate people you could ever hope to meet and it is wrong to tarnish us all with the same propaganda."

"By the same token, I do not wish to tarnish all non-smokers as selfish arrogant fascists," laughs Maude, "but it seems to be that there are far more of them around than selfish arrogant smokers."

"Not content with having an indoors smoking ban and forcing all smokers out into all sorts of inclement weather," explains Maude, "these people are now complaining about having to pass smokers indulging their filthy habit outside non-smoking premises."

"How selfish and arrogant is that?"

"What about smokers who now have to brave bad weather and breathe in the filthy toxic fumes of passing traffic when they go outside to smoke?" asks Maude.

"What about our health?"

"Don't the non-smokers realize that cigarette smoke is a petty nuisance compared with the toxic fumes of industrial and vehicular pollution?"

"Just like weapons of mass destruction, the government has lied to us about the health hazards to others of smoking," says Maude. "In an advisory note to inspectors on second-hand smoke the government itself admitted it cannot produce epidemiological evidence to link levels of exposure to SHS to the raised risk of contracting specific diseases and it is therefore difficult to prove health-related breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act."

"Also, the anti-smoking lobby has deliberately prevented tobacco manufactures from producing a sweet smelling smoke -- and making the smoke less visible -- because it knows that the smell and visibility of tobacco smoke is its trump card."

"People are so dumb that they're led to believe that if you can't smell or see something it has to be harmless," sighs Maude, "and the industrial moguls play on this myth in order to get away with murder."

"There are far greater health risks than passing someone smoking," says Maude, "such as walking down the street breathing diesel particulates and carcinogens that have been proved to exist in petrol exhaust."

"If you live anywhere near an exhaust stack from a vehicular tunnel, for instance," explains Maude, "you won't see smoke belching from it -- or smell foul odor -- but your health is being seriously compromised nevertheless."

"Non-smokers who rejoice at now being able to breathe clean, non-poisonous air in pubs and clubs -- rather than choking through a cigarette smoke haze -- should give themselves a reality check."

"Yes, I do believe that the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces -- soon to be extended to outdoor areas -- does contravene the European Convention on Human Rights."

"Most smokers are considerate people who take into account the health concerns of others," says Maude, "and we certainly don't smoke around children or people who have chest complaints."

"Non-smokers who take children to beer gardens -- the only place where smokers are allowed to smoke -- are, in my opinion, being incredibly selfish and arrogant."

"Cigarettes are a legal product and are less toxic to the environment than motor vehicles -- most of which are used for pleasure in the same way that tobacco is," explains Maude. "Sure, there are laws preventing drivers from using their vehicles in certain areas -- but what happens when the anti-vehicle brigade start lobbying to get non-essential vehicles off the roads?"

"What is the good of having a legal product -- like a vehicle or a cigarette -- if the places where you can enjoy it are being taken away from you?'

"The ban on smoking in enclosed public areas is the first step in a campaign by the anti-smoking lobby to ban smoking altogether," says Maude. "These selfish and arrogant people believe they have a right to dictate to everybody what they can and cannot do, so it is definitely a question of human rights."

"Most of the anti-smoking brigade would be drivers -- and some of them would be the fat, lazy, selfish arrogant types who drive up the road belching out toxic fumes and carcinogenic particulates just to buy a loaf of bread or take their kids to school rather than walking."

"I'm not complaining -- yet," says Maude, "but as more and more of my rights as a smoker are eroded I am becoming more and more aware of the so-called rights of others that impinge upon my heath."