THE good folk of Blackburn were adamant they would not stop smoking when a Telegraph team went out on the streets following a report on lung cancer.

The Medical Research Council had revealed a relationship between smoking and the disease — following an alarming increase in lung cancer in the previous 25 years.

But today we reported that smokers were little worried about the link, with only one willing to cut down as a result of the warning.

Mrs John Moss, of Havelock Street, said: “It is a very serious business. If there is a chance I will get cancer with smoking then I will stop.”

But others were determined to carry on, with pipe smoker John Ashton, of Nuttall Street, saying: “You just cannot blame tobacco for lung cancer. Take tobacco away from most old people and they have had it. They would fade away.”

Dustman Gerald Parramore, of Cunningham Place, who smoked 10 a day but did not inhale, said: “I am not giving it up. I do not think it does me any harm.”

And postman Arthur Entwistle, of Mayfield Street, said: “The report seems a lot of rubbish to me. I have smoked for 31 years and now have about 50 a day but I never felt better.”