Editor:
I have made a shocking discovery.
Many of the magazines in many medical offices carry tobacco advertising. They are all American magazines – Road & Track, Popular Mechanics, Car & Driver, etc. – as Canadian magazines are no longer allowed to openly promote tobacco.
Why would a general practitioner, an optometrist, a cardiologist – all healthcare professionals – provide magazines that try to entice patients to smoke or chew tobacco?
Are they not busy enough?
Smoking kills more people every year than all illicit drugs, alcohol, traffic accidents, homicide, suicide, and fires combine.
Do we really need more sick and dying people? What’s next? A ‘sickaret’ vending machine and ashtrays in the waiting room?
This is unconscionable.
Jerry Steinberg, Surrey
