A pressure group who want to ban smoking in public places are to step up their campaign with public meetings this fall.

Advocates for Non-Smoking spokesman, Charles Jeffers, said the group had been lobbying the Island's restaurants to get them to ban smoking and, although some were keen, none wanted to be the first because they could lose businesses.

He said it was time tough laws were brought in and his group would begin to lobby MPs.

He said: "We are looking to ban smoking in work places, restaurants, malls - any place where people gather."

Asked if anti-smoking legislation would be another turn-off for tourists who might already find Bermuda too straight-laced he said: "Why should we be the dumping ground if it's the law where they are?"

He said Ontario, in Canada, was looking to bring in a ban on smoking in pubs at the end of this year and smoking in restaurants was already banned while pharmacies were told to have separate entrances from the main store for areas selling cigarettes.

"In New York, the mayor is trying to bring in strict non-smoking laws banning smoking in public places, including bars and restaurants," said Mr. Jeffers.

"In California they are raising the legal age of smoking from 18 to 21."

He said in Toronto, all restaurants were non-smoking apart from ones which had installed sealed off cubicles with separate ventilation systems.

Asked about the need for the campaign Mr. Jeffers said: "Smoking is a killer. I don't know about the statistics here, but in the US about 400,000 people die each year from smoke-related illnesses."

Smoking is such a heavy addiction that some addicts could not stop even when they were disease ridden, said Mr. Jeffers.

He said: "I knew one woman with emphysema used to turn off her oxygen machine to smoke."

Mr. Jeffers said people should be able to do anything lawful as long as it didn't affect other people, but non-smokers were affected when smokers lit up and he said a paediatrician had told him that passive smoking might be linked to sudden infant death syndrome.

Literature had showed postmenopausal women were susceptible to the affects of smoking because their oestrogen levels fall, said Mr. Jeffers.

Health Minister Nelson Bascome said Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Cann had also been working for almost two years to try to get restaurants to have non-smoking areas with some success.

However Mr. Bascome would not be drawn on whether it was time for legislation to ban public smoking until Dr. Cann had given him an update.

Mr. Jeffers said the group will be meeting with members of the medical profession and health groups which deal with asthma, diabetes, heart disease and stroke as well as health insurance company officials.

He said a further meeting was planned for the public to get their support