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Continue educating patients on the risks of smoking
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To the Editor:
Dr. Michael Silverman responded (“Smokers will heed no advice from ODs,” January 2012, page 7) to the article about smoking cessation (“Optometrists can play a major role in helping patients quit smoking,” October 2011, pages 1, 12 and 14) by citing numerous examples of his patients who have flaunted reason in the service of maintaining their nicotine addiction. Dr. Silverman states that he thinks “the sale of cigarettes should be banned.”
I do not think banning tobacco would have any more effect that banning alcohol in the 1930s did to curb drinking or alcoholism. Marijuana being an illegal substance does not keep people from using it.
Education is the key. We know smokers have heard the risks, but you never know when “just one more reason to quit” will hit home. Sometimes people value their eyesight more than their lives.
Leora A. Berns, OD
Avon, Conn.