London mayor plans to consult residents of the city if smoking should be banned across the key parks after a new report today said around 1.2 million Londoners still smoke, causing 8,400 early deaths each year.
In radical proposals, former health minister Lord Ara Darzi said that Trafalgar Square, Parliament Square and London's Royal Parks should all restrict smoking.
Leading cancer surgeon Darzi was appointed by mayor Boris Johnson to chair the London Health Commission, which presented its "Better Health For London" report here.
The mayor indicated he was reluctant to adopt measures akin to New York's smoking ban in Central Park.
"One of the glories of London is that we are generally pretty laissez-faire about how people live their lives - provided they do not break the law and provided they do no harm to others," Johnson said.
"If we were to consider a ban on smoking in parks, we would need pretty clear evidence that this would have direct health benefits - in other words, that it would actually save lives. It is time for London to have that debate," he added.
Under the plan, the mayor would use bylaw powers to stop smoking in Trafalgar and Parliament squares.
He would then need the Royal Parks and local authorities to pass similar bylaws to ban smoking in the open spaces that they manage.
Smoking has been banned in pubs and restaurants along with virtually all enclosed work and public places throughout Britain since July 2007.
About 1.2 million residents in London smoke, causing 8,400 early deaths a year, and 67 children in the capital take up the habit each day, the report said.
London has 20,000 acres of park and open space, covering almost 40 per cent of the city, more than any other capital in the world, the report said.
The commission's analysis suggested that a ban in those areas would contribute to a fall in the proportion of smokers from 18 to 16 per cent.
Darzi said: "We do have a major public health crisis when it comes to the health of this wonderful capital city. 500 admissions a night are related to alcohol. That is an astonishing figure. Both as a Londoner and a doctor, I wasn't really aware that the [figures] are as bad as the evidence would suggest.
