I AM criticised for being a doctor who advocates the freedom of choice to smoke in pubs.

A GP is there not only for those with broken or sick bodies, but equally for those sick of mind and soul. My calling was to help the stressed and depressed, the sad and lonely, the unloved and the unloveable.

Who am I, of the comfortably off middle classes, to sit in judgement on those for whom smoking is a genuine comfort, and the pub is an absolute lifeline?

Sir William Osler, a famous 19th century physician, said that what sets a man apart from the lower animals is his desire to take medicine. We all have our drugs, from caffeine to heroin, and all of these, without exception, leave their casualties, whether in production or consumption. Why should the smoker be the whipping boy?

Though I am now a non-smoker, I know what smoking means to a great many people. I am not arrogant enough to consider them as any more 'selfish polluters' than we who take unnecessary car journeys, or travel in aeroplanes while we practise our vices in warmth and comfort.

Dr Susan Hatten Salter Street Berkeley.

(Last one on this subject, I promise!)