Doctors claim AMs have been told 'myths' about a smoking ban

BMA Wales has published a report aimed at the "myths" it said the pro-smoking lobby had told to oppose legislation.

The assembly does not have the power to bring in a smoking ban but has set up a committee to look at the evidence.

The pro-smoking group, Forest, said calls for a ban were not based on "incontrovertible scientific evidence of harm to others".

BMA Wales said its report, Behind the Smokescreen, would "clear the air" on the evidence presented to the AMs sitting on the assembly's committee.

The report claims evidence shows that passive smoking increases the risk of lung cancer in non smokers by 20-30%.

It also claims that evidence from Ireland, which brought in a ban last year, shows that banning smoking in public places does not increase smoking in homes.

Doctors said they hope now that the Welsh Assembly Government, which voted for a ban in 2003, will be given the powers to pass the legislation.

The report says the effects of passive smoking kill 30 people daily

Dr Tony Calland, Chairman of the BMA's Welsh Council said: "Earlier this year, BMA Cymru Wales asked the Welsh public to sign a country-wide petition calling on the UK Government to give the National Assembly the power to exercise a ban.

"Over 12,000 people signed that petition, which was presented to 10 Downing Street.

"If the health of the people of Wales is a priority for politicians, then a complete ban on smoking in enclosed public places is the only answer."

Mr James Johnson, chairman of the BMA(UK) said: "The medical profession is united in its calls for a UK-wide ban on smoking in all enclosed public places and workplaces.

"Recent research reports that passive smoking kills 30 people each day. The true cost of delaying legislation is not financial, it is human."

Lord Harris of High Cross, president of the smokers' lobby group Forest, said: "The truth is that the dozens of studies conducted around the world over the past 25 years fail spectacularly to yield any reliably stable, uniform or statistically significant link between lifetime exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and lung cancer in non-smokers.

"We must keep constantly in mind that the 'evidence' on passive smoking is based on nothing more substantial than estimates, guesswork, subjective recollections and even gossip."