To the editor:

I’d be remiss if I didn’t comment on the Lawrence smoking ban.

My plant, Packer Plastics employing 450 people, went smoke-free in the 1980s. Once the employees realized the intentions were for the health of all, no one raised any real objections and it was well accepted.

I recall many flights from Kansas City to New York where it seemed I was always seated between two smokers. They had a tendency to hold their cigarettes away from themselves and toward me! It made for a miserable trip.

Later, I was on a trip when, once again, smokers on either side of me were about to light up and the stewardess reminded them they were sitting in no-smoking. I must say the smokers were angry but I was really pleased to know that I could breathe all the way to New York.

I doubt today you would find many smokers who would expect to smoke on an airplane; they aren’t angry about it, and it has improved the quality of air travel.

At one time, folks were allowed to smoke in movie theaters. Today no one would expect to smoke in a confined space where they would contaminate the air of others. I feel that the strong objections that people feel for the ban will subside and we will all be better off.

Our society cannot afford the insurance health costs or the possible lawsuits from passive smoking effects.

Jim Schwartzburg,

Lawrence