Smokers’ Rights Are Dead Wrong

* Re “Smokers Face Bar Workers’ BREATH Test,” Jerry Hicks column, Feb. 3:

Thank you for Hicks’ column.

Unfortunately, the smokers who protest that they have a right to smoke anywhere are generally at an age where they believe that they are immortal.

Those who protest the loudest are “hooked” the worst. (Thank you, Philip Morris and others.)

It probably would take an extreme effort for them to get rid of that deadly, addictive habit. These smokers should visit the cancer centers at the various local hospitals to talk to some of the older smokers who also believed at a young age that they were immune to cancer caused by smoking.

That would be a good punishment for bar owners and patrons who violate the no-smoking rule.

Please continue Hicks’ columns, and maybe the publicity will help save a few from the awful tortures of lung cancer.

RICHARD HODGSON

Huntington Beach