Smoking ban could be extended to cover office doorways

Andy Burnham, the health secretary, will review the current law to see if it should be strengthened to include areas where smokers have gathered since the 2007 ban.
Plain packaging for cigarettes and a complete ban on cigarette vending machines could also be introduced.Mr Burnham said he wants to halve the number of smokers in England from one fifth (21%) of the population to one in 10 by 2020.
The target requires around four million of England's estimated eight million smokers to quit.
An extension of the ban – which currently covers enclosed spaces – to include open-air but busy areas such as office doorways and pub gardens, would also reduce passive smoking, Department of Health (DH) officials believe.
However, Simon Clark, director of the smokers' lobby group Forest, said further legislation would “further erode our ability to choose how we wish to live our lives".
The number of smokers has fallen by a quarter in the past decade, but an estimated 200,000 young people start smoking every year.
In 2007 more than 80,000 deaths and 1.4 million hospital admissions were attributed to smoking and the Department of Health said the habit costs the NHS £2.7 billion a year.
Mr Burnham said: "Most smokers start before they are 18, so we have to discourage children and young people from ever starting.
"Now that we've banned advertising and will soon see an end to attractive displays in shops, the only remaining method of advertising tobacco is the packaging. So we will carefully consider whether there is evidence for making tobacco companies use plain packets.
"We will always help people to quit, and smokers should never stop trying. That's the beauty of the NHS – it's there to help everyone.
"One day, in the not too distant future, we'll look back and find it hard to remember why anyone ever smoked in the first place."
His review, which will begin in July to coincide with the third anniversary of the ban in England, will consider spaces outside buildings.
In addition to the entrances to office blocks, many of which are now a frequent haunt of smokers, he will look at the effects of smoking areas outside pubs, bars and nightclubs as well as bus shelters.
Mr Clark, of Forest, said the government had already introduced "some of the most draconian antismoking laws in the world", adding: "In an allegedly free society, this is nothing to be proud of."
He said: "The current smoking ban, which has had a devastating impact on community pubs and clubs, is out of all proportion to the harm allegedly caused by second-hand smoke. Further restrictions will only accelerate that trend."
"The Health Secretary says he wants to crack down on cheap illicit cigarettes, but at the same time the government says it will consider increases in tobacco duty.
"Don't they understand that one of the reasons Britain has such a problem with illicit cigarettes is because this government has increased tobacco taxation to record levels and that has encouraged criminal gangs and individuals to smuggle millions of cheap cigarettes into the country?"
More than 80,000 deaths are attributed to smoking ever year, costing the NHS £2.7 billion a year.