Letter: In Brief

Monday 15 February 1999 19:02 EST

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Sir: Your report "Marlboro has to pay dying smoker pounds 31m" (12 February) that this lady intends to donate her award to the anti-smoking lobby is encouraging. But this voluntary act should be compulsory by law the world over. The notion that smokers deserve compensation for their own pig-headedness is offensive to non-smokers. For decades smokers have labelled us selfish and intolerant for wishing to deny them their imagined right to poison others. Would passive smokers dying of lung cancer be awarded similar sums?

What will we have next? Nazis suing the Jews for defamation?

MAYA WEBB

London N22

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