Dear Editor:
In response to the question of how people who smoke can live to be 70 or 80 years old, they're lucky. The health risks associated with smoking - including many different types of cancer and heart disease - only increase as a smoker ages. To point to a single example of a smoker who has managed to beat the odds is to ignore the enormous amount of credible scientific research that has proved beyond a doubt that smoking is harmful to both the smoker and everyone around him.
Jen Thompson
Arlington, Va.
