SNUFF THE CIGARETTE ADS

ON Page 16A of the Nov. 18 Mercury News, I found a full-page color ad
for New Kool Natural cigarettes. It is my understanding that
newspapers are used in the schools as an additional teaching aid. What
kind of message does this give to the students when you publish an ad
for cigarettes?

I am aware that ads pay for the low cost of our newspapers, but to
print a cigarette ad seems counterproductive in our battle against
teenage smokers.

Mary Terry Bader
Santa Clara

MYTH OF SMOKING'S COSTS

REGARDING your story on the tobacco settlement (Page 1A, Nov.
17):

I am a non-smoker, but please quit promoting the lie about the health
costs to society of smoking, which many studies have refuted. Are we to
assume that death would be cheap and would never come if no one smoked?

We should not persecute or tax anyone over a lifestyle choice or
characteristic. Not smokers, not gays, not blacks, not browns, not
whites, not greens, not cheeseburger-eaters, not tofu eaters, etc.

Darrel Strachan
San Jose

Checked-by: Patrick Henry