Shadow Health Minister Michael Dunkley has taken the bull by the horns by tabling his own anti-smoking legislation in the House of Assembly.

The bill, drawn up in collaboration with a number of his United Bermuda Party colleagues and legal associates, seeks to ban smoking in all public places as well as raise the legal age for purchasing cigarettes from 16 to 18.

Speaking to yesterday, Mr. Dunkley denied the legislation's introduction was an attempt to out-flank the Government on this crucial health issue, insisting he merely wanted to "get the ball rolling" with the legislative draftsmen in the Attorney General's Chambers being somewhat overburdened at present.

Indeed, he renewed his call ? made initially during the Budget debate ? for the effort to rid Bermuda of the catastrophic health implications of second-hand smoking to be a bi-partisan affair, devoid of any attempt at political point-scoring.

"Government can look at this legislation and tweak it or change it or do whatever they want with it," he said. "The point is that the banning of smoking in public places is becoming increasingly prevalent around the world and I would even go so far as to say that Bermuda has been left-behind in this regard.

"It does not need to be a long, drawn-out process, and I would hope the Health Minister would take steps to address the bill as quickly as possible during the next parliamentary session."

Mr. Dunkley, whose father died of a smoking-induced stroke at the age of 42, pointed to the example of New York where, after an initial bout of outrage, the ban has proven successful.

"There was a lot of talk in New York at first, but after that died down the law actually worked out well," he said. "Overall levels of smoking dropped by three percent in the first year of the ban while pubs and bars actually started doing better financially.

"It is a win-win situation. In Bermuda we are faced with a reality of high healthcare and insurance costs and it is time we started taking some really positive steps to promote healthy living."

Raising the legal age for purchasing cigarettes would not stop all young Bermudians abusing the law, Mr. Dunkley conceded, but at least the message would be sent to the community that politicians are taking the situation seriously.

"Of course we cannot stop everybody getting hold of cigarettes illegally," he said. "But too many young teenagers in Bermuda are getting hooked and something needs to be done to make it more difficult for them.

"And certainly the shop keepers that I have spoken to have argued that it is ridiculous that somebody as young as 16 can walk into a store and buy cigarettes."

Together with the legislation, Mr. Dunkley also said a more concerted public campaign must be pursued on the part of the Ministry of Health highlighting the pitfalls of smoking.

"The only way we are going to tackle the problem is through a combination of legislation and education," he said. "If we can get this up and running in the near future, we will have made significant progress in encouraging better, healthier lifestyles in Bermuda."