New anti-smoking measures unveiled

Smokers could be restricted to small areas of pubs and restaurants under tough government proposals to cut the risk from passive smoking.

The move could see four-fifths of every bar, restaurant or club being designated as a no-smoking zone, to reflect the proportion of the public who choose not to smoke.

Remaining smoking areas would be fitted with powerful air-conditioning systems to minimise the danger to people in the rest of the building.

Industry chiefs will be summoned to a summit meeting where they will be told by Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell to draw up a tough voluntary code to boost the rights of non-smokers.

If they refuse to co-operate, they could be hit with new laws to enforce the smoking curbs.

Ms Jowell's move today marked a stepping-up of the Government's battle to reduce smoking. Tobacco advertising has been banned and a current television advertising campaign shows graphic images of the amount of fat that can build up in smokers' arteries.

An attempt by one MP to ban smoking in restaurants won widespread support in the Commons last year, although it failed to become law because it was not supported by ministers.

Pizza Hut last year became the first major restaurant chain to ban smoking throughout all of its branches. In a newspaper article, Ms Jowell - a former public health minister - pointed out that 120,000 people still die

every year from the effects of smoking, despite a decline in the popularity of cigarettes.

She said: "I would like to see the hospitality industry tap into the huge numbers of nonsmokers and reformed smokers like me who want to enjoy a night out without infringing the rights of those who still want to smoke.

"There are millions of us, and yet the proportion of eating and drinking places with no-smoking sections and decent air-con is still tiny.

"So I will be inviting the leaders of the hospitality industry in to talk about how, together, we can all get what we want.

Government can increase the choices for non-smokers, the industry can tap into a lucrative market and nobody will be bullied into a lifestyle they don't wish to join.

"I want to see, in everyone's interests, a wider choice of venue to enjoy and I want the industry to expand to fill this commercial vacuum. Enlightened self-interest is often the best ally of government policy."

Anti-smoking opinion appears to be hardening among the public and doctors. A recent opinion poll showed widespread support for an outright ban on smoking in all public places, with many non-smokers even wanting smoking banned in the street.

The British Medical Association has called for a ban on smoking in public places, while an editorial in The Lancet last month went further with a demand that tobacco be outlawed on health grounds.

Ms Jowell conceded that she was bound to be accused of promoting the "nanny state". But she said: "The Government would be failing in its general responsibility to promote the welfare of the country where it can, if it did not give warnings and, sometimes, wield the legislative stick.