Letter: Smoking gun

Letter: Smoking gun

Sir: Michael S Maxson (letter, 15 November) claims that he has never seen a restaurant in which you could not smoke in the US. I can list four restaurants on my block in which smoking is not only not permitted but against the law.

You called such bans "American-style". Mr Maxson is from Toledo, Ohio, and his letter suggests that Toledo is America.

This attitude that anything not in my back yard is of little concern is frighteningly American-style. It gives Americans a bad name and leads to our government's unwillingness to ban landmines (they aren't lurking in Toledo's baseball fields) and willingness to bomb countries that won't behave.

KENDRA BARBER

New York