Further to your article about a smoking ban (The Argus, June 1), I would like to say how much I agree.

Although most non-smokers would like to see a ban on smoking, the proposals so far are causing other problems.

While shops and offices are stopping their employees from smoking on the premises, smokers are now going outside.

Where this seems a good idea - out in the fresh air- I have noticed more people hanging around doorways, usually in groups, smoking and I often have to walk through a cloud of their exhaled smoke.

A shop in St James's Street usually has the manager or his assistant standing in the doorway so you have to pass by about three inches from them.

Another shop in London Road usually has several people smoking and chatting together outside, making an even bigger smoke cloud.

But it is not just employees.

Lots of people smoke as they walk down the street and, on less windy days, the smoke lingers. I head for the opposite side of the road when it does.

Last week, I was sat waiting for a bus when a woman next to me, lit up and surrounded me with her unwanted smoke. I was not pleased, especially as I had just washed my hair. I had to get up and wait outside the shelter in the rain.

It's always the same at the large bus stops at the bottom of St James' Street, Western Road and on London Road.

While smokers are being forced out on to the streets they are making it even more unpleasant for pedestrians.

My plan would be to get them back inside, except in food retailers, and leave the pavements free for healthy people to use.

If a packet of cigarettes cost £50, I bet a lot of smokers would give up, or else crime would increase.

-HE West (Mrs), Brighton