Um, rheumatoid arthritis is linked to smoking. Quotes pasted below.

As far as the "it's a free country" defense, perhaps you can find some slightly more sophisticated argument than a meaningless cliche.

Your smoke actively infringes on our environment. I choose not to increase my risk of such ailments as rhematoid arthritis, and enjoy being able to run up and down stairs without breathing heavily.

You are free to smoke in your own home, and please do not give me ridiculous scare tactics about " that's next to go." As far as anywhere else - sorry, you're lucky to have anywhere to smoke besides your own homes. Your freedom does not encompass the right to actively pollute my environment with a toxin PROVEN to cause harm when passively absorbed.

You might want to acquaint yourself with centuries-old understanding of freedom before you give us your naive notions of what constitutes liberty.

And, sigh, yes, I know there's pollution out there, I know people do other unhealthy things. None of that changes the fact that smoked tobacco is incredibly invasive into non-smokers' environments. In a battle of "freedoms", you lose. I'm far more concerned with infringements on true freedom, such as freedom of speech or assaults on habeus corpus.

The link between smoking and rheumatoid arthritis was more evident in new research presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology.

In another study, after assessing 52 patients with severe extra-articular rheumatoid arthritis, including pericarditis, pleuritis, interstitial lung disease, Felty's syndrome, scleritis, and vasculitis, it was concluded that current smoking and high disease activity at onset of rheumatoid arthritis are risk factors for extra-articular rheumatoid arthritis. The study abstract is available online. (Presentation number 680)