In your editorial of 10/19 you say, "There is some muddled thinking going on at the City Council, where a bill to ban smoking in restaurants is stalled, apparently because of a fear tourists won't come here if they can't smoke over dinner." The only muddled thinking is in the mind of the editorial writer.

The fear that smokers won't come here if they can't smoke in the restaurants is real, not imagined. You definitely do not understand how smokers think as evidenced by your statement, "Surely smokers dying for a puff can wait until they leave the restaurant." We go to a restaurant to have a pleasurable dinning experience. We do not go just to eat. We can do that at home. I do not go to restaurants where I cannot smoke, not do I visit areas on the mainland where I cannot smoke. I do not go where I am not welcome.

You refer to the "proven health risks of secondhand smoke," yet you do not substantiate this unfounded statement. Secondhand smoke has not been proven to be a health risk. Unlike your editorial writer, I document my statements:

1) The EPA Report of 1993 was invalidated by a federal judge in 1998. Lest someone say he only vacated the methodology used, I learned in college Logic 101 that if the methodology is flawed, it follows that the conclusion is flawed. 2) The only definitive large-scale study on the subject was designed in 1988 by a WHO subgroup called the International Agency on Research on Cancer. They announced their results in 1998 and found that secondhand smoke did not pose a health risk. 3) The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory reported last year that they found restaurant workers are subjected to far less secondhand smoke than the public presumes, in fact less than one-sixth of OSHA's maximum allowable level.

In your editorial of 10/1, "Japan visitors wanted during new crisis," you state that Japanese tourists put bread on our tables. Over 50% of them smoke. You cannot have it both ways. If your editorial writer thinks Japanese smokers will not skip Hawaii because of a restaurant smoking ban, he is incredibly naive.

We are heading into the worst recession this state has ever seen. Fuzzy thinking does not contribute to solving our problems.

A Smoking Reader