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Worried theatregoers can breathe easy this week, after Galway-based Theatre Company Druid confirmed that the cigarettes used...

Worried theatregoers can (sort of) breathe easy this week, after Galway-based Theatre Company Druid confirmed that the cigarettes used in its current run of Long Day’s Journey into Night are actually herbal versions of the real thing.

In Ireland, both the Republic and the North, the current law is that the use of herbal cigarettes, which do not contain tobacco or nicotine, is permitted on stage. This is contrary to other parts of the British Isles, like England, which allows cigarettes to be smoked if the “artistic integrity makes it appropriate”, and Wales, which has banned them altogether.

It should be noted, however, that the smoke from herbal cigarettes does contain carbon monoxide in similar levels to that of a regular cigarette, as well as particulate matter from the tar in the product. In other words, the second-hand smoke is no less dangerous than that from a tobacco cigarette.

A press representative from Druid said the group was simply conforming to Irish law with regard to cigarette smoking on stage, which in many cases is essential to the roles or dramatics of a show, and though they were not required to post signs or make announcements to their audience regarding what type of smoking product is used, they would confirm they were not tobacco cigarettes.