Your reporter Rowan Dore putting an exhaust to the hanky test (The Argus, February 28) evoked a distant memory.

Years ago, I was giving private English lessons to a 17-year-old Swiss boy here on a working holiday to learn the language. He was horrified to see me light a cigarette during our coffee break and said he would show me what I was doing to myself.

Taking out a fresh hanky, he asked me to take a big drag but not to take the smoke into my lungs. He then asked me to immediately blow it hard through the hanky, which he had stretched over my mouth.

I did as he said and he triumphantly showed me the result - a nasty, brown, sticky stain in the centre of the handkerchief. He said it was the result of only a single breath from just a single cigarette. He went on to explain his father was a doctor and had used the same trick to prevent his son from starting to smoke.

I gave up soon after. Smokers should try it. They will certainly be surprised by the results.

-June Broomer, Peacehaven