Safer
smoking
IF people enjoy smoking and wish to continue doing so they can easily make it healthier: all that they need to do is purchase a longish, say three inches, cigarette holder. The tan condenses in the holder and every so often can be removed by pushing a pipe cleaner through it.
Without the holder the tar collected would, of course, have entered the mouth, lungs and nose; with the holder it is trapped before reaching the mouth. Result? Safer smoking at a stroke.
I must protest at the Railtrack ban on smoking on station platforms. They are not enclosed public spaces – indeed they are more open than most streets. The law did not require the ban, it was merely Railtrack trying to be politically correct.
The local Dean Forest Railway has sensibly not banned smoking on its land and platforms. The trains are non smoking, ensuring clean air and of course making cleaning of the coaches so much easier; but the journey time is short and there is no problem for smokers.
One lady who visited the railway when I was there had a tin in her shoulder bag which she used as a portable ash tray; she did not even drop ash on the platform.
If Railtrack – or whatever they call it now – followed the Dean Forest Railway's sensible policy, and if smokers were tidy and considerate, like the lady with the tin, things would be so much easier and nicer for everyone. – Smoker, Coleford.