PEOPLE are entitled to their opinions, and, as the man said "we should defend to the death their right to voice them".

But again, as the man said "it is sometimes better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and dispel all doubts".

Simon Clark, of the pro-smoking group Forrest, should perhaps bear the latter adage in mind before uttering the piffle I read in the Bolton Evening News article (October 14).

Mr Clark claims there is no evidence to support the view that passive smoking is harmful to non-smokers. He says: "The alleged effect of passive smoking is one of the great myths of the modern age."

Does Mr Clark seriously believe that the smoke that hangs in the air in rooms where smokers gather is different to the smoke they inhale -- the smoke that disabilitates and kills the vast majority of them? Maybe he believes it is just a myth that smoking kills.

I have no quarrel with Mr Clark smoking himself into an early grave, but for him to suggest that tobacco smoke, of any kind, is unharmful to anyone, is unbelievably irresponsible, and to say the least, naive.

Left to Mr Clark, maybe smokers would be allowed to blow their "unharmful" smoke into hospital wards and doctors' surgeries. If these pro-smoking groups want a better deal for smokers, then representatives such as Simon Clark should, to use his phraseology, butt out, and allow those who know and accept the facts to speak their case.

Brian Derbyshire

Ribchester Grove

Bolton