Readers React to Former Chancellor's Schmidt's Smoking Habit

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Of course Helmut Schmidt should be prosecuted for smoking in public. Why should he be allowed to smoke in the public and I'm not? This fact seems to be really unfair and Helmut Schmidt must accept the fact that smoking in public events is forbidden. -- Sebastian, Germany

I do not smoke largely due to the fact that my grandmother died of a smoking-related heart attack back in the 1950's. Yet to show the other side of the debate, I had a grandfather who started smoking at 12 years of age and continued until he died at the age of 86. Former Chancellor Schmidt should probably get a fine to make him think about his choices concerning smoking and health. -- Stuart John Pearson, Australia

The ban in Germany is more lenient than those imposed in other western European nations in recent years as restaurants in the country will be allowed to provide separate "smoking rooms." -- Mike Tishler, Germany

The truth of the matter is that Germany is full of public establishments who have chosen to ignore the smoking ban and ordinary German smokers continue to enjoy a puff with a beer. I have recently visited three bars in the Müllheim (Baden) and Titisee-Neustadt districts doing just that and no one gives a damn. -- Wayne Shannon, South Africa

Helmut Schmidt should not be charged for smoking. We are all going to absolute extremes with regard to smoking bans. For a smoker, it feels tantamount to being unjustly imprisoned when really the harm we supposedly cause to the health of others is not as dire as it is purported to be. If it were so, then we would completely outlaw the manufacture and distribution of tobacco products. Why don't we go ahead and do that. Then we will all throw away our cigarettes and live happily ever after. -- Karen Freed, United States