My use of the NHS? Excuse me, I pay my health insurance and use private health care so if I do become ill due to my smoking, I am paying for it - in both senses of the word.

I'm an non-smoker. I was SO PLEASED when no smoking laws were introduced to get this filthy toxic habit out of public places. I remember a trip to Switzerland which doesn't have these laws and trying to eat a meal when someone lit up in the room and I nearly threw up. I'm so glad the UK finally seen the light and put this disgusting habit outside. I would like it to go further and ban it from open public places as well, like they do in New York.

They can't tax smoking high enough for me. Using plain wrappers should be repalced with full colour graphics of smoke-diseased organs. Anyone who wants to smoke should have to buy a permit which limits the extent of their medical treatment as it slowly kills them.

If people want to smoke, they can pay for it, do it somewhere a thousand miles from me and not burden the health system for their self-inflicted diseases

Rather hysterical and over the top there Graham I thought, live and let live a little don't you think? Apart from the odd whiff of smoke as you pass someone in the street it really can't affect you that much, does it...

I totally agree with all you've said, OB. The NHS is flooded every week with alcohol related accidents, incidents and illnesses, most especially by binge drinkers over the weekends, filling up already busy A&Es, throwing up everywhere and abusing the hospital staff - not by cigarette smokers. Also, hospitals in this country are dealing more and more with alcohol abuse than smoking related illnesses.

Also, it's highly unlikely you'd get a smoker peeing in your garden on the way home, or getting their old man out in full view and peeing up the wall of the pub they've just come out of.

Drunks are also more likely to cause accidents on the roads either by driving under the influence, or swaying into the road and getting hit; whereas cigarette smokers don't get stopped whilst driving to be given a breath test and there is still NO PROOF that the smoke from a cigarette can cause harm to others, whereas the fumes from an exhaust pipe can cause very serious harm to babies in buggies which are at exhaust level and which contain more carcinogens that cigarette smoke.

Life is a lottery. I knew of an old man who started smoking at age 13 and lived to be 97 and suffered no bronchial or heart disfunctions.

A darling friend of mine smoked from age 15 and she died at 77 - from bowel cancer.

I've never suffered from shortness of breath, coughing or any other so-called tell-tale signs, which doesn't mean I'm safe, but we've all got to die of something!

Apart from the odd whiff of smoke as you pass someone in the street it really can't affect you that much, does it...

I'm afriad it does. I am fairly healthy, but cigarette smoke sets me into an eye-watering hacking coughing fit. I find the smell offensive, more so when I am forced to be in close proximity to it. I just get offended when people light up near me.

As for food and drink, I feel the same way. If you are going to drink or eat to excess to the point of causing damage to yourself, then you either pay extra for your resultant treatment or you live with the consequences.

I am supportive of those who need help to change their lifestyle to return to health, but I have no time for those who feel its their right to eat/drink/smoke themselves into hospital and/or expensive treatment programmes at the taxpayer expense with no intention of giving up their own self-destuctive lifestyle.