Derek Honey rants on about the pub smoking ban (Oxford Mail, February 16 and 27), the former in rebuttal to my letter challenging him to substantiate his claims that pub closures are at a certain (high) level and that this is due to the smoking ban.

In response, Mr Honey still did not substantiate any of his claims with referenced research - but he did suggest that the smoking ban was bad because Hitler would not have done it.

He also postulates there is more lung health danger standing at a bus stop. How many people does he know who would do that upwards of 20 times a day for six minutes each time?

I respect Mr Honey's right to his opinion - we're in agreement on that. Like him, I'm just writing mine. His second letter states the pub closure rate has escalated from 50 to 67 per month - apparently, according to him, this all happened this month!

He also provides his insight into the medical history of Derek Sherwood, who has recovered from throat cancer from passive smoking, opining that it could have been due other environmental factors and because the only evidence was "a doctor told him".

I am sure Mr Sherwood would be far more persuasive in suggesting where Mr Honey might deposit his creative assumptions.

Mr Honey bases his professed vast knowledge of the effects of passive smoking on reading the Oxford Mail death columns and that he and two siblings have survived until 80 in a world filled with tobacco smoke since infancy. In my opinion, Mr Honey shoots from the hip with his claims.

JOHN JONES, Burwell Meadow, Witney