Q. Why do shops sell cigarettes if they kill people?

A. First of all, because people used to think that smoking was good for them and made them look good. During that time the cigarette industry became very big business - employing lots of people, making good profits and giving tax to the governments. Very difficult just to stop all that! But it’s also about free choice. It would be awful to live in a world where you could not make at least some choices about how you lived and how you wanted to treat your own body. But smoking is a difficult one - since its effects are not just upon the smoker but others who breathe in the smoke too.

Reverend Alan Green,
Area Dean of Tower Hamlets Deanery and
Rector of St John on Bethnal Green