Even this figure (from a study in early 2005) ignores the now firming evidence about the increased risk of breast cancer among second-hand-smoking women.The number of non-fatal diseases and symptoms suffered by nonsmokers due to tobacco smoke is much, much longer. What about the 11,000 adult nonsmokers who are killed in the UK each year because of second-hand smoke? That figure alone would bring the total of deaths up to 125,000. This is in spite of the fact that “most adults” drank alcohol but only a minority of adults used tobacco.Nor does the harm done by tobacco to people who do not use it themselves seem to have been included. Your report is almost utterly without explanation as to what factors are involved or how those factors are positioned in making the final ranking of dangerousness.Tobacco (ranked number 9) kills 114,000 people in the UK each year, according to the study your report is based on, while alcohol (ranked above tobacco at 5) kills 22,000.

Not exactly even handed is it?DAVID SIZERPORT D’ENVAUX, FRANCESir: Peter Slessenger/ Schlesinger (letter, 2 August) does not seem to consider how many of the “too many to count” relatives of his who were murdered in the Holocaust might have survived had the state of Israel existed in 1939.DR TOM WEINBERGERJERUSALEM, ISRAEL Tobacco is the most dangerous drug Sir: Listing tobacco as being less dangerous than alcohol (1 August), is just about as unhelpful as the classification of illegal drugs into classes A, B and C. Every child murdered will create a new army of supporters, and this cycle will go on for eternity. It is Lebanon’s tragedy that the Israeli and American governments have not yet grasped this fact.TINA MASSAADLIMASSOL, CYPRUSSir: Your headline(31 July) asks “What in the name of God have we done to deserve this?” The answer is simple: sheltered and supported Hizbollah, an illegal terrorist organisation which, despite compromises made by Israel in the recent past, still insists on shelling Israeli towns and cities.I do feel sorry for the innocent Lebanese whose country is being used as a battlefield for an organisation supported by Syria and Iran, but they were told to get out of the area.ALAN LINESOXFORDSir: So it’s 242 bad, 1559 good; imported Katyushas bad, imported F16s good; democratically elected government in Palestine bad, democratically elected government in Israel good; the dispossessed bad, the dispossessors good. By blasting Lebanon to pieces, Israel is feeding them, giving them even more reasons to exist and breeding recruits on their behalf. Lebanon is a beautiful country; moutainous, fertile and green, with wonderful beaches and incredible ancient sites. The people are warm and welcoming and live happily side by side, Muslim and Christian.Hizbollah must be stopped, but Israel cannot destroy them by demolishing Lebanon. The bombed fuel tankers have leaked oil into the sea and the beautiful warm Mediterranean waters where we swam so happily just weeks ago are now a thick black sludge.

War has brought an end, too, to conservation projects to protect rare turtles.The hearts of Lebanese people all over the world are breaking as they see all their dreams of returning home one day go up in flames for the sake of a war between two sides that they don’t support. The human cost and the destroyed infrastructure are not the only catastrophes. All the hard work of the past 15 years destroyed in one week, and a million people displaced. The talks hadn’t so far been successful, but at least the subject was under discussion.Nobody in Lebanon believed the country would go back to a war situation because they were all totally against it. Since the last war in 1991, the country still does not have electricity round the clock, decent roads or pavements However, all these things had been improving. After the major setback of the Hariri assassination, the tourism industry was beginning to flourish once again. An impressive new airport had been opened, hotels had been built, the downtown district of Beirut had been beautifully restored, beach resorts were full of tourists, roads were being resurfaced, flyovers built and investors from the Gulf had promised to build developments along the coast.But now we see this tiny country being torn apart.

We are now safe in Cyprus, after fleeing from Lebanon through Syria with our two young sons on the second day of this terrible war.In the time I lived in Lebanon, the elected government had been holding discussions aimed at persuading Hizbollah to disarm, a requirement of UN Resolution 1559. We owe it to the wonderful people of Cuba, and to what little is left of the integrity of US foreign policy, to clearly understand their values and views. The last thing that they need is unwelcome intervention by the US. And the last thing I want is to be party to another mistaken incursion into another country’s political life.DAVID HALLOCKBELLEVUE, WASHINGTON, USA The heartbreak of the Lebanese people Sir: I am a British citizen, married to a Lebanese man and I have been living in north Lebanon for the past two years. In the case of Cuba, American public support for intervention turns on whether Castro is a dictator or not. Every dissident individual becomes a validation of our prejudices whereas in truth, we really don’t know what the Cuban people want for their country.I am very concerned about the political practice in the US of demonising political leaders of foreign countries in order to justify intervention in their internal affairs.

But because Cuba is a shadow society to the US, meaning that its values stand in stark contrast to those that predominate in America, we tend to project our distasteful perceptions of Cuba onto the unknown attitudes of the Cuban people. The embargo was crippling to Cuba and, in the judgment of many, an act of war. We should also appreciate the fact that Castro tried to establish a healthy relationship with the US and was snubbed when foreign holdings were nationalised. It is fair to say that the US drove Cuba into the arms of the Soviet Union and that Cuba today is as much a manifestation of US foreign policy as it is a fulfillment of Castro’s vision.There is a considerable bias in the US toward interfering in Cuba’s internal affairs, predicated primarily on the judgment that the Cuban people live under dictatorial oppression, a view that is aggressively nurtured by the south Florida Cuban ex-patriot community Whether Castro is a dictator or tyrant is highly disputable.