DEAR ABBY: As a firefighter, I am saddened by the number of people who die each year in home fires simply because they did not have working batteries in their smoke detectors.
During the course of our rescue attempts, we keep finding smoke detectors that did not function because the batteries were either worn out or missing.In the early 1980s, we saw a dramatic decline in the number of home fire deaths because of the wide acceptance of smoke detectors. Now the number of deaths is on the rise again. What a tragedy!
Abby, please help us get the word out that smoke detectors are worthless unless they have batteries in them that work, so on Sunday, Oct. 29, when people should turn back their clocks an hour from daylight-saving time, they should put NEW batteries in their smoke detectors. - JIM ESTEPP, PRESIDENT,
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION
OF FIRE CHIEFS
DEAR JIM: Consider it done! Readers, don't forget, Sunday, Oct. 29, when you turn back your clocks, change the batteries in your smoke detectors.
DEAR ABBY: Enough is enough. You've turned your advice-to-the-lovelorn column into one crusade after another. Get off smokers' backs!
I just read Susan Ortez's letter about her mother who smoked herself to death (supposedly). Well, my mother has smoked two to three packs a day since she was 14 years old, and she has never coughed once. She's a tiny, fragile woman who will be 92 this month.
Her closest friend died of lung cancer. She was 67 - and never smoked a cigarette in her life! - HEALTHY 70-YEAR-OLD
SMOKER
DEAR HEALTHY: I am glad you are a healthy 70-year-old smoker. You are very lucky, and your mother appears to be even luckier. There is no arguing with the fact that smoking contributes to lung cancer, bladder cancer and heart disease. Some smokers are luckier than others - but why gamble?