MR Carter (Letters, November 5), has thrown down the gauntlet, which I'm happy to pick up.

He is right about one thing, I do consider myself to be a 'concerned citizen' who has every right to let people know when they are flouting the rules of society, especially when it affects my health and that of others, which passive smoking does.

Derriford Hospital obviously agrees or they would not designate the hospital site as 'non-smoking'. I am not 'ordering' people not to smoke, nor is Derriford Hospital. They are merely asking smokers to use the smoking shelter. Is that too much to ask?

I do not believe my attitude can be construed as 'bullying', as Mr Carter suggests. I did not shout at people, or swear at them or physically abuse them. If I was to upbraid someone for throwing litter on the streets, or using a mobile phone in a quiet carriage, would that be bullying? Would that (in Mr Carter's words), be being 'discriminated against, pushed around or looked down upon'? I don't think so.

As to why I take it upon myself to 'tilt at windmills'? Well someone has to. 

Tony Rushbrooke

FOLLOWING the letters from Tony Rushbrooke (October 29) and Mark Carter (November 5), I feel the great pity is that there are some smokers (a minority) who feel it is 'OK' to cause other people to breathe in what they are breathing out, which is unpleasant and unhealthy. 

That is why we unfortunately need rules, and it is an even greater pity that there are still some who are so inconsiderate of others that they even break these rules.

Perhaps though, in the case of smokers outside a hospital, there is a case for cutting them a bit of slack? Who knows what traumas they may have just

experienced . . .

Judith Brown

Bere Alston