The government is set to launch a campaign warning of the dangers of second-hand smoke.

The new move comes as a consultation on whether to introduce a partial ban on smoking ends.

Under current proposals all enclosed public places and workplaces would be smoke free by 2008, except for private members' clubs and pubs not serving food.

However, groups including the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing have called for a complete ban.

Should the government introduce a complete ban on smoking in public places? Or would you prefer a partial ban?

This debate is now closed. Read a selection of your comments below.

The following comments reflect the balance of opinion we have received so far:

Just let people get on with living their lives, you sad people Edward, London, UK

Just let people get on with living their lives, you sad people! Let each property-owner decide what their own policy is going to be. It's not the government's business.
Edward, London, UK

The whole issue is tax revenue, not health or civil liberties. I am sure that the saving to the Health Service would outweigh the tax income. It would take time to work through the system but is the only course in the long term. Ask yourself -if someone came along today and suggested that we dry and shred a vegetable substance, set fire to it and inhale the combustion products he'd be laughed out of town. Let's sort it out once and for all
Bill, Bromley UK

Any Londoners out there should be far more worried about the damage caused by just living there. You've seen the pollution monitors on the sides of the streets, yet there are no pollution monitors for second hand smoke in the pubs and clubs, I wonder why?
Jeff Jenkins, Southampton, UK

I recently visited the west coast of Ireland with some mates who are smokers (I'm a non-smoker). Interestingly, we all preferred the smoke-free environment in the pubs. It was a far more pleasant environment in which to socialise. My smoking friends also found that the trip outside to smoke could be a very sociable one. If smokers want to kill themselves with cigarettes that's their issue but I don't want my health endangered because of other people's weakness/selfishness. Ban smoking in all public places. Some people need to be disabused of the misapprehension that smoking is an expression of their civil liberties.
Ben, London

Pubs and restaurants already have the right to make themselves non-smoking, as many restaurants in Bristol have done. Pubs on the other hand mainly staid smoking. Surely market forces would have made pubs decide to ban smoking if they felt the market wanted it.
Iain Crawford, Bristol

Smokers who inflict their pipe/cigarette smoke on other people in public spaces are just plain selfish Charles Smith, London UK

Smokers who inflict their pipe/cigarette smoke on other people in public spaces are just plain selfish. I don't mind if those fools want to increase their own risk of cancer, heart disease and amputated limbs arising from vein clogging. However I do object to them inflicting it on me and my family.
Charles Smith, London UK

This whole debate is ridiculous. You can't go around banning everything that is hazardous to health - what would we do without cars for example? However, to my mind it would be quite reasonable to have separate areas with separate ventilation designated for smoking. If these areas were separated out, what possible objection could the PC brigade have?
Ben, London

The reason why these areas are called public places is because they are just that public places. I am a smoking tax-paying member of the public therefore where are my rights? When all these non-smokers stop driving their cars, burning their fossil fuels, recycle everything consume only organic foods and live an environmentally friendly lifestyle I'll put my fags away. In the meantime they are damaging the environment as a whole rather than just the non-smoker sitting next to them in a pub which they know is going to contain smokers. Go and socialise in a pub that does not allow smoking if that's what they want but we must have choice.
Astaire, East Sussex

To Michael from York, what about the civil liberties of non-smokers then? We have the right to breathe air which is smoke-free.
Liz, Worthing

I've never understood this issue, I don't smoke but have no problem with smoky pubs. I guess I'm just lucky to live in an area where going into pubs is not compulsory.
Elaine M, Soton

As a part-time smoker, I agree smoking should be banned in confined public places. Ideally, we should have 'smoking' and 'non-smoking' pubs. Mind you, traffic and industry fumes are far more lethal for us all.
Luke, Sheffield

It is already hard to imagine that smoking was ever allowed in the office place Graham Small, Croydon, Surrey

Once smoking has finally and rightly been banned in all enclosed public places it won't be long until it seems impossible to believe that it was ever tolerated. It is already hard to imagine that smoking was ever allowed in the office place. Face up to it smokers - you're a dying breed.
Graham Small, Croydon, Surrey

Yes it should. For a start it would help ease the pressure on the NHS. But the government will never introduce this ban because it generates too much revenue - even if that revenue is spent on treating people with lung cancer. Go figure!
Ross, UK

By all means have your blanket smoking ban, but don't complain when your local pub and your local curry house closes down or goes delivery only and you have nowhere to go with or without the possibility of being near a smoker. Smokers may be in a minority, but amongst those who socialise we are a significant majority, and unlike those who eat unhealthy food and/or don't exercise, we not only pay for all our healthcare but a significant amount of non smoker's healthcare as well in cigarette tax.
Tom, London

Why should my health be affected by an inconsiderate smoker? John Gilham, Maidstone

There must be a total ban otherwise it will be unclear and will not be enforced. Why should my health be affected by an inconsiderate smoker? Recently sitting in a well known top London restaurant where all areas are smoking areas people on the next table were smoking whilst I was eating. I will not return to that restaurant again. I feel this is totally unacceptable whilst eating but would prefer to have a total ban.
John Gilham, Maidstone

A total smoking ban will cost an insane amount of money. Even talking about it is costing valuable hours and millions of pounds. The cost of enforcing such a ban will eventually end up in the billions. The 'criminals' created by it - cigarette smuggling is already a major issue - will be legion. We'll have to sacrifice even more of our scant public resources, whilst losing the income from cigarettes being taxed. Less will die from smoking, but the effects of less available money for the NHS and other public services will kill far more.
Daniel Situnayake, Birmingham, UK

I'm happy for a ban on smoking in public places as long as there is also a ban on bad breath and BO in public places as well. They may not have the documented health hazards of smoke but they're equally disgusting.
Jeff Jenkins, Southampton, UK

Even the local bingo halls are non-smoking Richard Collinson, Victoria, BC, Canada

Here in Victoria we have had clean air laws for years that ban smoking indoors, except in your own private home. Restaurants and bars are always busy and everyone seems to have a good time. Even the local bingo halls are non-smoking and have no shortage of customers.
Richard Collinson, Victoria, BC, Canada

I have nothing against smokers, but as an asthmatic who only started with symptoms after two years of working in smoky pubs, I feel that a ban will protect workers' health. But for those publicans who wish to retain their smoking customers, I'm sure that smoking areas where air conditioning and policy of returning your own glass to the bar could help keep everyone happy.
Anon

I gave up smoking a while ago after many efforts to stop. Still doesn't make me want a total ban. I'm totally with the smokers' pubs idea, if only because even as a non-smoker I would choose to go to a smoking pub to avoid all the self-righteous non-smokers posting here on this subject.
John Stanford, St Mandrier, France

As a smoker for 20-years I would welcome a blanket ban, it could be just the motivation I need to give up.
Nick, Brighton

Why can we not have separate areas where smokers and non-smokers can go? It would be down to individual establishments to determine whether their customers want this arrangement. Moaning self-righteous people would then have a choice but they'd have to pick another target to attack.
Lewis, Bristol, UK

I'm sick of the self-righteous gob-on-a-stick brigade and their anti-smoking tirade. There are more dangerous and anti-social things than the tobacco habit. If you don't smoke, count your lucky stars and enjoy the benefits of the NHS (we pay more than you) and your comparative wealth.
Martin, London, UK

Idea: Build new 'smoking pubs' and with the profits fund a new hospital for smokers so the rest of us don't suffer from massive waiting lists.
Loubie, UK

When I was still a smoker I met a lady in the smoking carriage of a GNER train. She said she wasn't a smoker herself, but she always sat in the smoking carriage because she thought smokers were much nicer people than non-smokers. I don't miss cigarettes/nicotine but I do miss the camaraderie of smoking areas. I live in London where the air's so filthy it wouldn't make any difference if we banned smoking altogether.
Toni, London

A total ban is needed. I think it just shows how much smoking takes over someone's life when they can't even sit still through a meal without having to desperately suck down another death stick. And as a serious asthmatic, I don't feel they have the right to shorten my life and the lives of everyone else around them because they've lost all self control to an addiction and just don't care who it hurts.
Taylor, Gatwick

There's no smoking in pubs here in New York, and it only seems to be a problem for chain smokers. The reality is that walking all of 50 feet max to have a ciggie every so often is no big deal at all. It only bothers those people who "need" one cigarette after the next: filthy people who I'd prefer stay at home anyway.
Dan, NYC, USA

It either has to be made illegal or we are stuck with it Jim Kirk, Tottenham, UK

I am a non-smoker and can't stand the smell of the things. However I also appreciate that smokers probably pay a greater proportion of their income in taxes than any other group and smoking is totally legal, indeed successive governments depend on its income to fund the country. It either has to be made illegal or we are stuck with it on purely fairness grounds.
Jim Kirk, Tottenham, UK

I think the only sensible and just solution would be to have pubs, or areas of pubs, that are truly smoke-free and those that aren't that way everyone would have a choice. A blanket ban would be a draconian infringement of civil liberties. If smokers want to meet in a pub run by smokers, why should anyone have to the right to stop them? The dual approach where smoking is banned in places where food is served seems right, as it would result in both smoky and smoke-free pubs. This would also give bar-staff a choice of where to work - everyone's a winner. It's not rocket science.
Jack, Leeds, UK

I am smoker and often take into consideration the feelings of those people who don't smoke. If the pub is serving food I often get up and go outside. I think a more important issue would be the banning of petrol and diesel engines as they pump out 10X the amount to dangerous fumes into our air. I don't think I've breathed fresh air in London for the 25 years I've lived there! Stopping smoking in the street is ludicrous when you consider what else you are breathing.
Nick, London

How about leaving it up to the management of the establishment to decide? If the sign above the door clearly says this is a non-smoking establishment then it's illegal to smoke in there. This way everyone knows which place they want to avoid (for whichever reason) and if the landlord of a smoking pub sees his business suffer as people go to non-smoking place next door, all he has to do is put the sign up, and vice versa. Rather than forcing everyone to conform why not allow us to make our own decisions for once.
Steve D, London, UK

It is high time this ban was implemented Andrew Harrington, Northampton, England

My wife and I went over to Dublin for the St Patrick's' Day celebrations. It was an absolute delight to be able to go into any bar or restaurant and not choke on the smoke cloud. It was also great to wake up in the morning and not feel sick when handling the clothes worn the night before. As for the smokers? They all went outside and no-one (except selfish Brits) complained. Everyone said that the introduction of the total ban would sound the death knell for Irish pubs. Not from what we saw. It is high time this ban was implemented as a total ban in the UK and smokers made to realise that others have health rights far greater than their selfish addiction rights.
Andrew Harrington, Northampton, England

I trust that in the spirit of "not being forced to suffer other peoples' bad habits", anyone attempting to leave a pub under the influence of alcohol will be detained until their own bad habit presents no problem for anyone else.
Jamie, London

I would like to see designated smoking areas, suitably ventilated. Currently we have designated non-smoking areas identified by lots of signs and stickers of cigarettes crossed out. I don't want smoke or stickers on the window of my rail carriage and my restaurant table. Many smokers fail to observe non-smoking signs. They should be the ones to look for "smoking permitted" signs.
Michael, UK

Second-hand smoke is so over-rated, car fumes are much worse. I believe there should be non-smoking areas and smoking areas in a bar (with a smoke extractor, like in the bar I go to). In Malta smoking is banned in every public place, but nobody respects the laws in Malta anymore, because it is ridiculous that we have to suffer, because the smoke bugs a non-smoker. Pubs are for smokers. The non-smokers are in minority. For the first few months they were strict, so instead people didn't go to bars, they went to liquor stores and smoked and drank in parks. Now The pubs are suddenly allowing it illegally. I wonder why.
Graham, Malta

Britain is rapidly becoming a nation full of self righteous do-gooders Mark Schubert, Malaga, Spain

Thank God I live in Spain! Britain is rapidly becoming a nation full of self righteous do-gooders. Why not just have smoking and non smoking pubs, smokers would then be able to enjoy their tobacco and non-smokers could all congregate in healthy little groups and dream up yet more things to ban. I appreciate that the blanket argument is to "protect employees" in pubs - it therefore seems reasonable that smokers pubs would employ smokers, I fear this is not what the health police require.
Mark Schubert, Malaga, Spain

The reason that an outright ban is not proposed is because the government still wants (needs) the tax that comes from smokers. If it was purely about peoples health, there would be a complete ban - and other taxes would have to raise in order to compensate, but people would not be happy with that.
Wayne, Essex

You would think that the fact that cigarettes are made up of over 50 known carcinogens would be enough to make it clear smoking causes detrimental damage to both the user and those forced to suffer in the near vicinity. The government's lack of action on this shows them to be incapable and fundamental ignorant to basic facts. A complete ban must be introduced and as soon as possible: we can't allow thousands of people to be forced to continue to suffer inconsiderate smokers.
Matt Lovell, London

The thing that really annoys me about smoke-free establishments is that there always seems to be a group of smokers huddled around the entrance, often with the door ajar. What is the point of a non-smoking facility if smokers walk in stinking of toxins, before exhaling their last lungful of smoke? Is a full ban enough, with this behaviour?
Ben, Glasgow, Scotland

As an ex-smoker, I know how it feels to be on each side of the coin. A blanket in all public places ban is the only way forward. If I choose to eat fatty foods and take no exercise then this doesn't have an impact on others but if I smoke then other people have no choice but to breathe it in. Smokers complain about the choice but in reality its a selfish addiction that takes over your way of thinking leaving the non-smoker (the majority) with the only choice to avoid the pub or passive smoke and get cancer.
Tony Mcgarry, London

I resent the statement that non-smokers don't appreciate the damage of second-hand smoke. I'd like to completely avoid second-hand smoke, but there's no chance of that as long as people are going to smoke in bus shelters and similar places, and respond rudely when I ask them to stop. How about making it possible to avoid smoke before assuming that non-smokers are willing to put up with it?
Ann, Netherlands

I support a total ban on smoking in public places - pubs, restaurants, clubs, anywhere. I have been asthmatic for years and can't wait to go to my local pub and return suitably refreshed without stinking of smoke and my chest heaving. We don't allow any smoking in the house - we make no exceptions. The ban can't come soon enough.
Hugh, Nottingham, UK

In South Africa any public place may have a smoking area as long as it is enclosed and separately ventilated. This means that smokers and non-smokers can live in relative harmony and restaurants and pubs can cater to both groups. It does, of course, cost a bit to set up. As a non-smoker I am appalled at people lighting up near me after their meal while I'm still in the middle of mine. I really don't mind if they inject poison into their veins, but to pollute a common resource is unacceptable. Ban all smoking in all public places now.
Graham, Bracknell, Berks

Wherever the law can be applied, I believe that it should ban people from smoking in the presence of small children especially babies.
William Sherratt, Kingston Upon Thames, UK

I have just visited Dublin where smoking is banned in pubs and restaurants, in fact almost anywhere. It was very clean. All the smokers were outside and it has spawned a whole new industry to provide shelters complete with gas heaters outside many pubs.
Derek Brown, Belper Derbyshire England.

My civil liberties have been eroded enough. If I wish to smoke and the establishments are happy for the customers to smoke then we should be allowed to. Our government says we are living longer and becoming a burden on society, yet they want to ban smoking so that we can live longer! Where is the sense in that? Surely I am entitled to do what I please as an adult. What other pleasures has the working class. This government really does need to get to grips with the real world.
Michael Chalk, York England

We support a total ban on smoking in all public places and workplaces. The emphasis on smoking should come from the opposite direction with a national assumption that you are not permitted to smoke anywhere other than where a 'You May Smoke Here' notice is displayed. It would not be permissible to display such notices in workplaces or public places defined by law and would shift the public perception away from a prohibition regime to the social acceptability of a non-smoking culture.
Robin McKinlay, Sanderstead

Full ban, no exceptions, why should non smokers smell horrible and have health risks because others want to kill themselves.
Caroline Dobson, Wokingham, Berks

Yes. Only a complete ban will make any difference, otherwise ways around it will be sought and found. Smokers find it very hard to accept that their habit affects the health of others. Generous perhaps in all other ways, their addiction makes them uncaring of this issue.
Davina Ramshaw, London

I sincerely believe there should be a complete ban in ALL public places. As a past smoker, I no longer wish to endanger my life and I have the right to ask others not to do so, however being a woman I would not directly ask someone to extinguish a cigarette, but the government can and should do that for me! Take the choice away from public areas.
Lisa Lipscombe, Braintree, England

I have yet to hear one reasonable argument as to why there should not be a total ban on smoking in ALL enclosed public places. No one should have to suffer due to someone else's habit. I wish the government would stop messing about with half measures.
Jim Harrod, Ealing, UK

Ban smoking in all public buildings for health reasons and all public spaces such as train platforms, football stadiums etc. because it stinks! But most importantly, ban anyone from smoking until they are 18 on pain of a severe punishment - almost all smokers start before they are 14 and almost none would start once old enough to go in pubs legally.
Barry McMurdock, Welwyn, Herts, England

A ban on smoking is needed for the health of the workers in the licensed industry, it will also save on cleaning horrible ashtrays and in general the carpets and floor covering were smokers who are lazy and do not use the ashtray. It will save on the need for redecoration, no more sticky mess. A total ban will be easier to enforce. Trade will not suffer as all pubs will be the same.
Keith Richardson, Norwich, Norfolk

Clearly, there is no fair compromise - 'regulating' smoking in public places clearly infringes on the freedom and human rights of the smoker, but to do nothing would mean a continuing infringement on the freedom and rights of the non-smoker. That said, legislation on smoking in public places is a necessity, and for the good of a healthy society, it must be a total ban in all public places. Anything less is simply not worth the money and effort of enforcement.
Mark, Grimsby North East Lincolnshire

Yes there should be a full smoking ban and not a half-hearted effort which will please no one. I have suffered, for the last 30 years, inhaling other people's smoke despite trying to avoid it. If they (smokers) want to indulge in this disgusting habit let them do so in their own homes. To find out what a smoke-free public environment is like try a pub in Ireland, it is fantastic to be able to sit and have a drink without coming home stinking of old fags.
Kevin Hamilton, Bury St Edmunds

The Government's aim is to improve health and protect workers, based on the evidence that smoking, and second-hand smoke, kills. To allow smoking in non-food pubs is totally illogical and will increase health inequalities. The suggestion in the consultation that customers do not smoke within 1 metre of the bar in a non-food pub shows just what a nonsense it is.
Tony Langstone, Winchester, UK

I don't see why I should have to choose between my social life or my health, just because other people wish to pollute their bodies with nicotine. An outright ban in smoking in public spaces is the only solution and is long overdue in my opinion.
Anon, UK

Having been to many cities that have imposed smoking bans it very clear to see it benefits. I am sick and tired of going out of an evening for dinner and being subject to the next door tables plumes of smoke. Enough is enough! Wake up UK and smell the Fresh Air instead.
Craig Robins, London

If there's a smoke free pub near me I always go there rather than a chemical-filled alternative.This ban will simply accelerate the move towards smoke-free workplaces that is already being driven by Health & Safety legislation. It's a good thing to my mind!
Alan, Lincs, UK

The government should lead the way and set an example to private industry by hiring only non smokers. Smokers stink, regardless of health concerns! They simply smell nasty!
Mark Newman, Bangkok, Thailand

Nothing annoys me more than sitting outside on a nice summer's day in a cafe situation and there will inevitably be one person smoking spoiling the fresh air for everyone else - how selfish and ignorant can you be! Let's have a total ban on smoking in public.
Mike, Warwick, UK

I am so sick of the PC lot, tell you what ban smoking everwhere, then let's wait to see who the PC lot go after next. As a smoker I will now not take non smokers into any consideration, but will now go out of my way to blow all my smoke at them, kids and all.
Brian, Northampton