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From: bch@unc.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Smoking is not "evolution in action"!!!
Message-ID: <5439@unc.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 25-Jun-83 00:50:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: unc.5439
Posted: Sat Jun 25 00:50:39 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 28-Jun-83 19:51:05 EDT
Lines: 26

Dear Frodo:
	I was not defending smoking.  My letter was in response to someone's
query about the effects of alcohol on the unborn, not an excuse for an
anti-smoking flame.  Hopefully someone who might have considered drinking
while pregnant will reconsider before doing so.
	The facts are not debatable.  I can cite references if you wish.
Alcohol consumption during the first trimester of pregnancy is proven to
be the leading cause of birth defects.  There are no ifs ands or buts
about it.  Children of smoking mothers are shown to have a slightly lower
birthrate, but catch up in the first few months of life.  These are the
facts.
	I can understand, and sympathize, with your annoyance at smokers.
However annoying it may be that I smoke, I am much less dangerous behind
the wheel of a car with a cigarette in my mouth than with a bottle in my
hand.  The pack of cigarettes in my desk drawer impairs my work perfor-
mance (and that of those around me) much less than were it a flask.  The
costs, both direct and indirect, of smoking are much less than those of
drinking.  That does not mean that smoking is good, however.
	More seriously, in your rush to deliver YASF (Yet Another Smoking
Flame) unto the net you may have obscured the important information I
was trying to impart.  Hopefully most folks will have read the original
letter as I intended it, and not take a letter by someone using a pseudonym
too seriously.

					Byron Howes
					UNC - Chapel Hill