THERE cannot be anyone who does not know the health risks attached to smoking.

But, so the tobacco lobby argues, if people want to expose themselves to that risk it is their business and no-one elses.

At the same time however, the medical profession has made out a case that really cannot be argued against about the harm smokers do to those around them.

The effects of passive smoking - the term for those who are forced to inhale other people's tobacco fumes - are well chronicled.

Non smokers, for example, who live with smokers, have a 30 per cent increased risk of coronary heart disease. Our region also has England's highest number of people smoking 10 or more cigarettes a day.

Put those statistics together and it is difficult to see how anyone could disagree with the Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell wanting to see less smoking in restaurants and bars.

It is good to see some licensees trying to deter smoking for the sake of their staff as well as other customers.

And how many chefs agree with people being able to blow irritating smoke onto those trying to eat around them?

Rather than tiptoe around the problem we should follow the example already set by several other countries and a number of American states.

That means a ban on smoking in restaurants and pubs in the same way as there is in most workplaces.