Are these the ashes from a restaurant. No, they are the ash trays from a golden oldie home. If you are lucky enough to reach the golden oldie age and have needed an ash tray most of your life, and survived, then what is the problem. If the cigarettes have not yet taken you as captive, then there is no danger I suppose. I remember my grandfather. He lived to the grand age of 90 and smoked all his life. I think he began as a school boy. Remember when cigarettes were not a dangerous past time, when it was something that the working men did with no problems, as proof of their masculinity. Grandad even rolled his own. He had never heard of a cigarette filter but just needed the paper (I think it was called Rizla) and expertly enclosed the tobacco in a neat role. He would prepare about ten cigarettes and smoke them and then would construct more afterwards. They were the ash filled days.