EDITOR – The government’s decision to regulate e-cigarettes for minors under 18 is very welcome. According to some retailers e-cigarettes have been unregulated since 2016 with doubts about age restriction. Until last year, no health warnings were on packets like ordinary cigarettes. The current warnings are only in relation to the addictive side of nicotine and do not go far enough like cigarette packets for young smokers in warning them of the cancer causing effects of nicotine.
Some believe that the electronic pipe is completely different from the ordinary cigarette in terms of health. The primary active ingredient is nicotine and derived from tobacco which is a proven carcinogen — so there are very real health risks. The current propaganda being given out is that e-cigarettes are a safer alternative to ordinary cancer causing cigarettes. How safer? Nicotine by definition is a poison and long term use is bound to have detrimental effects such as cancer or other bad health effects. The game being played at the moment by the government and the tobacco industry is a wait and see policy to see if e-cigarettes are less harmful than ordinary cigarettes. It’s a dangerous game to play and is taking a big gamble with people’s health, especially young people with many of them now pipe smokers of popular nicotine laced vapours on a daily basis. It is hard to believe, though welcome, that advertising control will have any effect, given that e-cigarettes shops are now in many retail locations and stocked by nearly all chain stores.
If we want to bring down our soaring health costs and prevent disease, it all begins with lifestyle and bad habits.
Smoking in any shape or form will undoubtedly have ill-health effects at some stage, but at least minors will now have greater difficulty getting hold of something their friends might want to get them on to, so they too will increase the risk of having debilitating or grave medical difficulties later in life, or sooner than that.
Maurice Fitzgerald,
Shanbally, Cork.
Fantastic job, Bantry Hospital, and everyone should know about it!
EDITOR – I had back treatment in Bantry Hospital recently.
It was so good that I’d like to tell everybody!
Not only did I get treatment, but I also got tea and sandwiches.
The staff were so good. I think everyone should know what a great job Bantry Hospital does.
Bridie O’Driscoll,
Main Street, Schull.
Bittersweet memories of our beloved Goleen
EDITOR – My wife Carmel and I fell in love with West Cork – and Goleen in particular – many years before we had a home built in 1997 in Boullysalagh, close to the village.
She was born in Dublin and moved to London where I, an ‘exile’ from Scotland, met and married her in June 1963.
We, our five children and nine grandchildren, have always felt completely at home in Goleen and have spent many very happy holidays there together or in groups, in and out of season.
Our last visit was in the autumn of 2019.
Sadly Covid-19 happened then.
And my wife’s two-year battle with cancer ended with her death on December 16th, meaning that she was never to see her beloved Ireland again.
Andrew Watt,
Bromley, Kent.
Generosity of readers brings feelings of hope
EDITOR – Despite the challenges we are facing here at home, many of your readers continue to stand in solidarity with people living in some of the poorest and most troubled countries on earth by supporting the work of Christian Aid Ireland.
The generosity of our supporters has helped Christian Aid reach 600,000 people inside Ukraine as well as another 170,000 refugees in neighbouring countries, providing them with cash, medical equipment and shelter.
In the Horn of Africa, the worst drought in 40 years is pushing 23 million people closer to famine.
In northern Kenya, I saw for myself dried-up riverbeds and parched landscapes littered with animal carcasses.
I spoke to a woman farmer who showed me her brown, drought-scorched vegetables.
She told me that all her cattle have died so she has no meat or milk to sell.
Christian Aid is responding in Ethiopia and Kenya by repairing wells, handing out water purification kits, providing cash support, bringing in water tankers, and distributing fodder and veterinary medicine to keep valuable livestock alive.
I want to thank your readers for the sacrifices they have made during 2022 to share what they have with those who have so little.
Their exceptional generosity is bringing hope to communities living in poverty and crisis.
Rosamond Bennett,
Chief executive,
Christian Aid Ireland.
