Can we return this board to more germane subjects? How about some discussion of recent Letters to the Editor?

First, a response to Armand Cingolani III's shrill invective against the mandate of local City Council to restrict harmful behaviors in the public forum which impinge upon the rights and safety of others. My guess is that Mr. Cingoliani is a tobacco addict.

It is hardly necessary to recount the mountain of evidence showing duplicity and manipulation on the part of the tobacco industry in this country, or the scientifically proven detriments to human health posed by cigarettes. But just to further bolster the unassailable premise that we as humans have the right to expect to breath air that is free of the toxic contaminants found in the cigarette smoke with which some sadomasochists choose to indulge themselves, and as the data continues to roll in to support that premise, let's entertain a study just published in the preeminent medical journal of our time, The Lancet, and reported today by the Associated Press. Here are the salient points for present consideration.

'New landmark' research finds that alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous than some illegal drugs like marijuana or Ecstasy and should be classified as such in legal systems, according to a new British study.'

Researchers 'used three factors to determine the harm associated with any drug: the physical harm to the user, the drug's potential for addiction, and the impact on society of drug use. The researchers asked two groups of experts - psychiatrists specializing in addiction, and legal or police officials with scientific or medical expertise - to assign scores…

Heroin and cocaine were ranked most dangerous, followed by barbiturates and street methadone. Alcohol was the fifth-most harmful drug and tobacco the ninth most harmful. Cannabis came in 11th, and near the bottom of the list was Ecstasy.

While experts agreed that criminalizing alcohol and tobacco would be challenging, they said that governments should review the penalties imposed for drug abuse and try to make them more reflective of the actual risks and damages involved.'

"The rankings also suggest the need for better regulation of the more harmful drugs that are currently legal, i.e. tobacco and alcohol," wrote Wayne Hall of the University of Queensland (who was not connected to the study), in an accompanying Lancet commentary.

I might agree with Mr. Cingolani that Butler's City Council should give better attention to matters of more immediate importance, but as the best and most current scientific data and expert analyses eviscerate his core contention, the Council would have been more remiss in opting out of a "Clean Indoor Act". He'd better get used to going outside for a smoke like most of the free world is already doing.

On a separate note...

Re: KRISTEN HAGEMAN/AUTUMN MAIRE

I'd like to hear back from Kristen Hageman so we could give Autum Maire the roasting she so richly deserves for the ill-conceived, pathetically uninformed opinion and immature attitude expressed in her March 21 Letter to the Editor.