Letter: Cars can damage your health

I READ with interest your article on smoking in the Review (21 August). Honesty in advertising is highly commendable, so when will we see this with regard to the car?

Considerate smokers indulge their addiction only where it is permitted, and with thought for others, but are still damned by popular opinion. Is there such a thing as a considerate driver? The exhaust fumes are suffered by all. When air quality is poor those at risk (the elderly, children etc.) are advised to stay indoors. The 'victims' are restricted, not the producers of the pollution. It seems a rather topsy-turvy world.

I smoke, and trust that I am considerate. I am damned for my habit - by my doctor for one. I don't drive but walk, cycle or use public transport, depending on the distance to be travelled. However, my doctor gives me no 'brownie points' for my exercise (or sensible diet).

I wonder which is doing me the most harm - the cigarette, or the exhaust fumes?

Mary Upson

Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire