The Department of Health's legal advisers are clearly unable to help the director try and achieve control of this chaotic situation.

Furthermore, among all the arguments about revenue from sales of alcohol versus food, there is no room for the most salient issue that the legislation was supposed to address - namely the prevention of lethal health problems of the heart, lungs and blood vessels caused by second- hand smoke among catering workers.

When catering managers called for a level business playing field (which a comprehensive ban would provide), they were denied it. Instead the government and legislature created a major health hazard for thousands of workers in over 1,000 exempted sites.

This is in spite of the toxicological evidence in Hong Kong that the body fluids of non-smoking workers in smoking premises are heavily contaminated with tobacco chemicals. The disgraceful social injustice created by the poisoning of catering workers will continue unabated until at least next June.

But it is now vitally important that the movement to extend the exemptions and also introduce 'smoking rooms' is stopped in its tracks before we do further damage to occupational health in this city.

Anthony J. Hedley, department of community medicine, school of public health, University of Hong Kong

Conflict caused by wealth gap

I refer to your editorial ('Let democracy prevail over Bangkok's unrest', October 10).

Another coup is very possible in Thailand since the crisis of its democracy is rooted in its social structure. Since constitutional reforms in 1932, Thailand has seen about 20 coups and abolished 17 constitutions, and the average life of governments has been two to three years.

This instability is caused by the vast differences in lifestyles and economic interests. The income level of people living in urban areas is 10 times higher than the earnings of rural peasants. With such a huge gap, it is not surprising that people's political attitudes will harden and it is difficult to find reconciliation. Former premier Thaksin Shinawatra is good at tapping rural support by offering short-term incentives to peasants, at the expense of the city, because peasants form the majority of the population.

However, he and his family are business people from the city and this has brought him into conflict with business groups in the urban areas.

I do not think the opposition groups will give in easily in their fight against Thaksin and his supporters.

I think some people in the city would like to see a military intervention so that order can be restored.

Observers should be prepared for that to happen.

Thailand's democracy is still in its infancy. Clearly, something must be done about the levels of economic inequality.

Democracy is not just about politics. Economic issues are important. This is a lesson all new democracies must learn.

Joseph Ko, Sha Tin

Something has to change

The tainted milk scandal has again discouraged people from buying products with the made-in-China label.

Food safety has been a problem in the past on the mainland, but this time it has affected babies.

Despite the fact that some officials knew of problems with milk powder before the Olympics, priority was given to the Games at the expense of public health.

We still have officials who do not want any bad news about the country to come out, because they feel it affects the country's prestige.

Parents lined up at hospitals to have their children checked for kidney stones. They have obviously lost confidence in food safety on the mainland.

There are some food producers there who put profits before safety and are willing to use substandard ingredients in their products. The government must severely punish anyone found guilty of doing this, as they have shown a complete lack of social responsibility. Its priority must be to protect the health of its citizens.

Kev H. C. Lee, Kwun Tong

Slow reaction to pollution woes

Am I the only person to have noticed how quickly individual governments and economic organisations have been able to react to the financial meltdown?

Seemingly, with very little investigation as to what really has caused it and what can be done to prevent it again, they have been able to find billions. Yet when it comes to the environmental meltdown, such as polluted air and water and global warming, governments procrastinate - saying the research is inclusive, the free market will solve it and that it is just too expensive to fix.

The trillions of dollars currently being spent propping up a defective system would have gone a long way to tackling these problems and ensuring a safer, healthier place for our children.

The government's lightning reflexes show that money is far more important than clean air or water. Let's hope that in 20 or 30 years there will be enough left of both these so that the bankers can enjoy their money.

Gareth Jones, North Point

Prudence plea

I refer to the report ('Monetary Authority chief calls for full review of banking rules', October 10).

This cannot come soon enough. The comments by Securities and Futures Commission chief executive Martin Wheatley, that 'it is the responsibility of the selling intermediary . . . to determine whether these products are suitable to the investor', indicates an inadequacy in the supervision of these structured notes and minibonds and a lack of appreciation of the real world.

It is doubtful that the directors of the distributing banks could themselves evaluate the risk of these products and yet their inexperienced tellers have been given sales quotas to fill.

Such a serious lack of oversight would appear to ensure that a scenario of high fees and risk but low returns would end badly and ordinary people would be burned.

Now that these products created by financial engineering are collapsing, there is an urgent need to return to banking prudence.

Christian Rogers, Mid-Levels

Pricey fuel

Would the government, the Consumer Council and the city's major gasoline distributors care to explain why, when the price of oil has lost more than 40 per cent of its value, consumers are still paying very close to the price from when crude was at an all-time high of US$148 a barrel?

If Hong Kong pump prices properly tracked the price of oil, we would be paying around HK$10-HK$11 per litre.

Instead, private car owners are still paying more than HK$15.50. The government's tax rate on fuel has not changed, so who is getting away with highway robbery?

Andrew Sams, Sai Kung