Can there be anything more selfish and anti-social than the barbecue?

Not only were we driven indoors by great clouds of acrid smoke billowing across our back garden (and beyond), but clothes drying on our washing line had to be taken indoors and eventually washed again, for they reeked of the smell. Another house, a few doors further up the road, also had washing on the line.

If people must indulge in this macho male practice (have you ever seen a woman operating a barbecue?), please have the common courtesy to warn neighbours, particularly if washing is visible.

But remember that barbecues are dangerous, because of the pollution thrown into the atmosphere and the carcinogenic poisons – heterocyclic amines in charred meat and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the smoke that results from animal fats falling on hot coals – and toxins that are absorbed by the food as well as affecting the lungs, particularly of the chef.

Charring also produces ‘advanced glycation endproducts’, which accumulate in the body organs and are associated with cellular stress and aging.

Eating outside can be a pleasure, but why not prepare the food indoors in the kitchen and then take it out there.

Garry Humphreys

Park Avenue, Palmers Green