SIR – I read with dismay that David Ward and Philip Davies want to lift the smoking ban for pubs and clubs (T&A, January 10), shame on them.

Mr Davies says: “But what we have to accept is that it is an addiction and people have a right to do with their own bodies as they wish”.

I suppose the logical extension is that he would agree to all other forms of abuse to their bodies as well, i.e. drugs.

The smoking of tobacco has many health hazards to those who smoke and those who are subjected to passive smoking, the costs to the NHS being high as well as the personal ill health costs to those affected.

The tobacco industry makes a lot of money out of getting people addicted to smoking and cares nothing about the future ill health of those that become addicted.

Would MPs Ward and Davies be happy with their own children becoming addicted to smoking?

If the pubs and working men’s clubs suffer with the ban, this is a small price to pay compared to the ill health caused by smoking.

As with my reply to Mr Rhodes, I am concerned about the well-being and health of the public, and not about the pockets of the alcohol and tobacco industries.

Arthur Normington, Manor Drive, Cottingley, Bingley