According to an article in the November 1998 issue of Chatelaine Magazine 'Where Canadian women get it all. Together' (Vol.71, No. 11):

We're addicted!

Not only that,

"...we know beyond a doubt that inhaling secondhand smoke is harmful"

Here's some excerpts from the article:

"If someone asks her, Jody* says she's a nonsmoker, even though she has an occasional cigarette." *not her real name

Evidently there are those who believe that the protection of an alias is needed, so evil and depraved is the use of tobacco - or so they would like us to to believe.

"Others are closet smokers who sneak a few cigarettes when no one is watching....."

If these are adults who have been pushed into the closet in order to use a legal product, it's a very sad commentary on the times we live in, and the extent to which psychological intimidation has been exerted.

"....we know beyond a doubt that inhaling secondhand smoke is harmful," says Dr. Lew Pliamm, addiction consultant at the Addiction Research Foundation in Toronto.

Obviously, Dr. Pliamm either hasn't heard about what happened to the 1993 EPA Report and how damaged scientific integrity is on this issue, or he prefers to ignore it and hopes it'll go away.

Jody (not her real name) is quoted as having said, "I intend to give it up entirely when he (her son) gets older and it becomes harder to hide my smoking from him."

Well "Jody", hopefully by that time you'll have developed a spine and will be able to instruct him that smoking is an adult activity - his choice to make when he reaches legal age. Or would you prefer that he enters adulthood in a world where approved lifestyle has become law, and there are no decisions to make?

Chatelaine Partners in Health is supporting Dr. Ed Sellers at the Centre for Research in Women's Health (CRWH). Dr. Sellers has published research on nicotine metabolism, which indicates a genetic predisposition not to become addicted to nicotine because of a defect in the enzyme that metabolizes it. He hopes to inhibit this enzyme to prevent and 'treat' tobacco smoking.

"Treat tobacco smoking"? Has it been classified as a disease? Does our 'brave new world' include the application of a defective enzyme in order to help the new saviours of mankind?

Tell Chatelaine Magazine what you think: Letters at Chatelaine