“You’re never alone with a Strand,” went the old cigarette commercial. These days, smokers are almost always alone, as health conscious colleagues move out of the range of their fumes. Since smoking in public places was banned last July they could be breaking the law if they light up in a public building or place of work.

 Since the smoking ban was introduced it has also been illegal to smoke in vehicles that are used to transport members of the public or, if they are used by more than one person for work . This means it is against the law for both drivers and passengers to light up in taxis and private hire vehicles, even if the driver has no passengers.

 

Nor is it safe to smoke in your own private car. While smoking in the car is not actually against the law, under the new Highway Code, which came into force at the end of September, smoking a cigarette while driving could be classed as a “distraction”.

Little wonder. A recent survey found that more than 3 million UK motorists have had accidents, ‘near-misses’ or lapses in concentration as a result of in-car smoking. A horrifying 46 per cent of people have accidentally dropped their cigarette in the car. And more than a quarter of those (26 per cent) have taken their eyes of the road to retrieve it.

This means that a driver having an accident while smoking could be charged with driving without due care and attention, fined up to £2,500 and issued with between three and nine penalty points, or perhaps even banned. If that comes as a surprise, you may also not realise that playing loud music, eating or changing a CD, cassette or radio station while driving could incur the same penalties.

This could have serious repercussions for your motor insurance. A 37-year-old man with one conviction for driving without due care would face an average increase of 13% in his insurance premiums, rising to 26% for two. A 21-year-old would automatically be hit with a 21.8% increase for one conviction, and more than 39% for two. The miscreants could also expect the number of insurers willing to quote for their cover to plummet, with a third fewer prepared to insure them.

Motor insurance is not the only thing that careless smokers will find more expensive. Nicotine addicts will already be finding that life insurance is a lot more expensive for them than for a non-smoker. The same goes for critical illness insurance, which covers you against contracting a serious illness such as heart disease, stroke, kidney failure and several types of cancer.

You can, however, save money by giving up. Although you won’t be classed as a non-smoker for 12 months after your last cigarette, a male aged 30 who has given up smoking for a year could pay 40 per cent less in monthly life insurance premiums than if he carried on smoking. If you’ve already got a policy, tell your insurer if you give up, and see if they will reduce your premiums. You could also shop around for other cover, although it might not be as cheap as you hoped, as you will now be older than when you took out your original policy.

Finally, all is not doom and gloom if you can’t give up the evil weed. You could find yourself better off in retirement. Because smokers tend not to live as long as non-smokers, pension companies will charge them less for the annuities – the income for life – that they need to buy with their pension savings.

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