I NOTICED in last week's Mercury a piece referring to a Pints West article that mentioned that several pubs in Weston have snuff

I NOTICED in last week's Mercury a piece referring to a Pints West article that mentioned that several pubs in Weston have snuff available to customers. The landlords you approached appeared to be defensive about this - either denying it or not responding. I suspect their reticence may have been due to the tone of your article which seemed to imply they were offering snuff as some kind of deliberate attempt/aid to help smokers in light of the recent ban. There was nothing in the Pints West article to suggest that this was the case.I was in one of the pubs on Friday night and there were four different varieties on the bar and in another of those you mentioned, there has been snuff available every time I have visited. I am not a 'sniffer' myself, but I note that Cancer Research UK has said that there is no evidence of any health risk from snuff and that "Snuff seems an entirely acceptable substitute for smoking and could be recommended for addicted smokers because, if they could substitute snuff-taking for smoking, they would greatly reduce the risk to their health".TIM NICKOLLS - Via email