Quote from Skipness One Echo:
One wonders at the apprent inability of the cabin crew to nip this in the bud quickly. I'd bet that instead if explaining what it was they reverted to "do as you're told" and when people have a real and obvious concern, in this case smoke in the cabin, and that's not helpful.
Assuming the original report is an accurate and reasonably balanced account of what happened, I think you have made the most pertinent (maybe the only pertinent) point in this thread so far, SKP1E. Worrying, if true.
How many times must the "cabin manager" have seen this regular phenomenon before, and had he/she ever asked a flight crew to explain it, in case junior crew or passengers ever got worried? And when did he/she last have to make a PA without reading it from a card?