HERE we are again with the usual round of moans and groans about British Sugar (Letters, October 1).

While I sympathise with anyone who suffers from asthma, my wife being one of them, I very much doubt that steam with a hint of molasses causes any problems at all.

Despite British Sugar being in operation since 1926, my wife did not have a problem for the first forty odd years of her life in York.

I would put the ailment down to the low lying geography of York itself, motor car fumes and cigarette smoking, plus the fact that the weakness seems to be passed on through families.

I would have thought K. Packham would have found the sickly smell from Nestle more irritating living so close.

Bob Waite,

Windmill Rise,

Holgate,

York.

Updated: 11:33 Tuesday, October 05, 2004