I agree, generally, that somking should be left to die a natural death as people gradually take on the responsibility for their own health and make consideration for the health of those around them. After all, that is what has happened over the past 30 years. back then, more than fifty per cent of the adult population smoked. Now it is less than 30 per cent.
HOWEVER, for the selfish few who think they can pollute the air around them in public, they need legislation, which we now have.
I think I'm right in saying that, under the new law, a carer employed by the local authority can ask that clients they are visiting refrain from smoking for the duration of their visit. Sadly, this does not extend to carers from within the person's own family.
And there lies a sad, but true story. My cousin, who was exactly the same age as me (both born same day, same year) married a much older man who, shortly after their wedding, suffered a series of medical problems that forced him to give up work and become housebound. For over 30 years my cousin cared for her husband. At the same time she raised four children. For most of that time she breathed in the smoke of her husband's cigarettes. She was not a smoker herself. Last summer, she died from lung cancer, aged 49. It was a long, lingering death as the cancer went to her brain and destroyed body and her personality. Her husband, now 77, always thought he would die first. He lives on.