Natalie Walton has been left confused ever since she received a fine for dropping a cigarette in a village, nearly 300 kilometres from her home — a place she had not visited in over a decade. The fixed penalty notice (FPN), addressed to Ms Walton, was sent to her parent’s house in Gravesend, Kent, accusing her of littering in nearby Swanscombe. The notice, dated November 12, stated a Dartford council officer witnessed her “committing an offence” which was also recorded on a body-worn camera, on October 29 and that she needed to pay a £75 (Rs 8,082) fine or appeal it.

The notice added that Ms Walton could be taken to court and if convicted, she may have to pay a fine “up to & £2,500 (Rs 2,69,410) for littering”.

“As neither the payment nor the written challenge has been received, you remain liable for the offence and prosecution proceedings in the magistrates’ court may begin immediately against you,” the notice added.

Ms Walton claimed that she could not have been the accused as she is a non-smoker and has not visited the place where the offence took place, since she was a kid. Ms Walton added she had an alibi which proved she was not even in Kent at the time of the supposed offence.

“I had not been to Kent for months. Dartford council were trying to fine me £75 for something I was not even there to do. It is just a bit bizarre. I was accused of littering a cigarette in Swanscombe which is honestly more absurd, as I do not smoke and have never been to the address they have claimed I was at,” she was quoted as saying by KentOnline.

“I feel like a complete victim of fraud. Someone must have stolen my identity or the council’s security measures are so broken they will take a name and address with no proof.”

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Evidence presented

As the controversy snowballed, Ms Walton produced her bank transactions, proving she was shopping in B&M and Tesco in Staffordshire at the time of the littering incident. After her protest and examination of the evidence, the Dartford Council said Ms Walton’s FPN was cancelled.

“When I saw the email, I was relieved and felt so much less stressed but I still have no idea how they thought it was me,” she said.

The council, meanwhile, said the real accused had given the wrong address to the officers and pointed them towards Ms Walton.

“Our enforcement team requested a current photo of Ms Walton and upon receiving it was compared to the person in the footage. It was found it was not Ms Walton and the FPN has now been cancelled.”

The council is still investigating who the real offender is but was unable to provide a photo.

Despite the fine being revoked, Ms Walton said the entire ordeal had left her stressed, especially when she is getting married in two weeks.

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| Photo Credit: Reuters

Smoking has a lasting effect on specific human immune responses, persisting long after quitting, reports a paper in Nature this week. The study, which investigates a range of factors that might contribute to variability in immune responses, also identifies body mass index (BMI) and latent infections of cytomegalovirus (a common virus) as having a substantial influence on immune responses. The findings offer insights into the factors that potentially underlie the risk of developing infections and other immune related illnesses such as cancer or auto-immune disease.

There is wide variability in the way humans respond to immune challenges, such as bacterial or viral infections, as seen with the diverse range of clinical outcomes observed after infection with SARS-CoV-2. Age, sex and genetic factors play a major role in this variability, but modifiable environmental factors, such as lifestyle, may also contribute. Understanding how such variables affect immune responses could improve the design of treatments and vaccines.

Darragh Duffy from the Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Paris, France and others investigated the effects of 136 environmental factors on variability of immune responses in 1,000 individuals. Among the environmental factors studied, smoking was shown to have the greatest influence on immune responses. It affected both innate and adaptive immunity — the former is a general response whereas the latter is more specialized and pathogen-specific. While the effects on innate responses (such as increased inflammatory responses) were transient and lost after smoking cessation, the effects on the adaptive response persist for many years after quitting, altering the levels of cytokines released upon infection or other immune challenges. “The results collectively show a short-term effect of smoking on innate immune responses, and a long-term effect of smoking on adaptive immune responses,” they write.

“Our study identifies a strong link between these previously proposed disease biomarkers and response to immune challenges in smokers versus non-smokers. Furthermore, our findings in healthy donors open avenues for further exploration into understanding how smoking acts as a risk factor for cancers beyond the lungs,” they write.

BMI and cytomegalovirus are also found to have noteworthy effects on cytokine secretion, but the variance associated with smoking reaches levels equivalent to those linked to factors that cannot be changed, such as age, sex and genetics.

The authors acknowledge some limitations in the study, such as the absence of a replication cohort and limited genetic diversity in the individuals studied. However, the findings provide new insights on the impacts of smoking on human health and help our understanding of the role that modifiable environmental factors have on immune response variability.