Wednesday, 3 September 2008

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Coronation Street asks pregnant star to smoke

Alison King to continue using cigarettes while filming soap

Alison King gave up cigarettes in real life after discovering she is pregnant

Coronation Street bosses have asked Alison King to continue smoking on screen.

The pregnant actress, 35, who plays Carla Connor in the ITV show, gave up cigarettes when she discovered she was expecting her first child with boyfriend Adam Huckett.

But her character has a storyline where she takes up smoking – and bosses have asked the actress to use herbal cigarettes.

‘She isn't best pleased. It was hard enough for her to give up in real life,' a source tells The Mirror. ‘And even inhaling smoke from herbal tobacco surely can't be a good thing for a mum-to-be.’

Dr John Moore-Gillon from the British Lung Federation, confirms even herbal cigarettes can be damaging to pregnant women.

‘If you're smoking herbal cigarettes, all you're doing is substituting the burning leaves of one sort of plant for another,’ he says. ‘People think that since they don't contain nicotine they're safer.

‘Ordinary cigarettes contain several thousand compounds, but you still get tar from herbal cigarettes, which could do you just as much harm.’