Now, it's binge SMOKING!

After the dangers of binge drinking, now the dangers of binge smoking. The British Lung Foundation warn that social smokers, who only light up when drinking or out for the evening, could be at even more risk than regular tobacco-addicts.

Professor Stephen Spiro of the BLF told the Independent on Sunday: 'It is much more dangerous to smoke 20 cigarettes in four hours than to smoke the same amount in the course of a day. The amount of nicotine getting into the bloodstream is much higher. That is an incredible hit on the lungs and heart.'

Drinking plus smoking is doubly damaging. According to research carried out at Kings College London last year, drinking increases the damage the cancer-causing substances in tobacco cause to the mouth. The result is that oral cancers are booming among younger people.

The problem is complicated by the fact that many of social smokers don't think of themselves as smokers. This is clearly self-deception but self-deception is something men are very good at when it comes to our health.

Smokers are pretty expert at it too. In France, the introduction of large health warnings on cigarette packets has seen a boom in sales of the 'sigibox'. A sigibox lets you cover your fags in a prettily designed overcoat so you don't have to read that nasty health warning!

The dangers of social smoking and passive smoking are behind the recent call by doctors for a ban on smoking inpublic places. The many social smokers who say they support the idea of a ban would be doing themselves - and their non-smoking mates -  a big favour.