More street smoking bans proposed

The City Council of Melbourne, which is the capital of the state of Victoria, Australia, is planning to hold a public consultation from July 18 to August 19 on a proposal to ban smoking on sidewalks along major streets, according to a story in the Herald Sun, relayed by the TMA.

The ban, if adopted, would apply to Swanston, Russell, La Trobe, Victoria and Lygon Streets, as well as outside the City Baths.

Councilor Richard Foster, chair of the ‘people city portfolio’, said the public’s response to the previous smoking ban covering nine city areas had been “overwhelmingly supportive”.

In previous consultations, about 85 percent of respondents had supported increasing the number of the smoke-free zones, he said.

Such a level of support is not altogether surprising, however. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in 2014-15, 14.7 percent of adults aged 18 years and over smoked daily; or, put another way, 85.3 percent were non-smokers.

The council is considering the ban at the behest of RMIT University, whose property services executive director, Chris Hewison, said the university, which has a campus-wide smoking ban but borders Swanston and La Trobe streets, received ‘regular complaints’ about smoking on footpaths outside its doorways.