IN 2007 we saw the smoking ban which was heralded at the time as the most significant public health development in years, not forgetting the concerted campaigns to get people to give up smoking.

But it does seem that each year we receive information which seems to indicate that the situation regarding smoking is getting worse.

I think that the Daily Echo editor makes very valid comments about some of the information provided, and I myself would question how the figure relating to staff sickness is arrived at.

I really think that the people responsible for this information should give a much better explanation for these figures than they have done.

One question worth considering is whether some people in fact take up smoking to alleviate stress or as a respite when they find the circumstances of life difficult to deal with.

It would be easy to classify the death of King George V as entirely due to smoking, when in fact he became King following the death of his father and the abdication of his brother in the same year, and within three years had a world war to contend with – a tough challenge for someone who did not expect to inherit the throne and was not always comfortable in the limelight.

Personally I have never smoked, but am a person who has definite views on health-related issues.

MALCOLM CLARKE, Eastleigh.