From Mike Taylor
You have discussed “getting away with” smoking or e-cigarettes (30 May, p 30). I am 69, and have smoked since I was 13. I turned to Old Holborn roll-ups at 15 when I joined the army. I have tried giving up on many occasions, once for three years, but missed my fix every minute of every day. I now know it is killing me. I tried e-cigarettes a year ago and have cut ordinary cigarettes to three or four a day – I now hope to quit them completely.
The fuss kicked up by the anti-smoking lobby about e-cigarettes has more to do with puritanism than public health. Using e-cigarettes, I can now walk without getting breathless, my “smoker’s cough” has disappeared, I can taste my food again and smell the flowers. I can understand the call to regulate e-cigarettes, but let us see them as a boon, not just another innocent pleasure to be squashed.
Borough Green, Kent, UK
