SHOCKINGLY, smoking is still Britain's biggest cause of premature death. Most of us could name a tragic roomful of people who have fallen victim to the weed - their own lives curtailed, at a loss to their families and friends.

So it is a pity that Sir Richard Doll, the cancer expert who, half a century ago, led the way in pinpointing a link between lung cancer and smoking, now has to give his name to research which shows that smokers who stop before middle age run only slightly more risk of contracting cancer than those who have never smoked.

Of course scientific fact is scientific fact, which can't be meddled with. But the reassurance that the death warrant that starts to write itself with a smoker's first cigarette can be erased after decades of inhaling will be an excuse for thousands of today's young smokers to carry on, and probably for many more to take up the habit. "As long as I quit by I'm 40, no harm done."

Even for life-long smokers up to 50, the cancer risk diminishes sharply if they stop. Picking up this point, Clive Bates, director of the anti-smoking group Action on Smoking and Health, says: "The message is that no one should ever think it is too late to quit." In fact the key message is quite different. It is that unless they stop, half of today's smokers will smoke themselves to death. The addictive nature of their habit ensures few will stop. Which makes it a particularly sharp irony that many may be drawn into smoking by the prospect of a safe breathing space, identified by one of smoking's biggest adversaries.

AS MY wife and I picked bilberries at Rosedale on the North York Moors the other day, a young family came by on a walk. "What are you picking," asked one of the two kids, aged about nine. "Bilberries," replied my wife. "What for?", came the next question. "To eat," said my wife. "You bake them in a pie. They're delicious." "Yuk," uttered the youngster, ending the exchange. The frozen-pizza generation.

GOOD news that Cleveland Bridge is reviving the proud name Dorman Long - the great Teesside steel company. Redolent of the strength and endurance of the company's product, most famously showcased in the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the name is, as a Cleveland Bridge executive says, "known around the world". So why has Cleveland Bridge sat on it for 20 years, now dusting it off for what looks a desperate throw of the dice, following cutbacks and redundancies?

PROVIDE the missing word in these two sentences, both recently 'in the news.' "Have you got the time?" - the phrase quoted by Peter Grundy, a senior lecturer in linguistics and English language at Durham University, to illustrate what he calls 'positive politeness.' "Can you use your sword?" - the Queen Mother's request to her equerry when she needed help in opening her 100th birthday card from the Queen. I trust you've got it - the missing word is 'please.'

Incidentally, though any centenarian might fumble with an envelope, the thought crosses my mind that it's possible the Queen Mother has never opened an envelope. Her lifetime's dedication to public service, the much-trumpeted theme of her centenary, would leave little time for such tasks. Still, let's look forward to the QM's 101st birthday. Those who insisted, correctly but hopelessly, that the new millennium wasn't due until 2001 will have the satisfaction of seeing the pushers of the 2000 millennium come into line. For it will be pointed out that the QM, born in 1900, the last year of the 19th Century, and still alive in 2001, the first year of the 21st Century, has lived in three centuries. Remember, you read this prediction here first.