Sydney Suburb Stubs Out Smoking in Pavement Cafes

Australian cafe culture has trumped the country's one-time addiction to cigarettes, with the Sydney suburb of Mosman becoming the first in the world to ban smoking at pavement cafes.

Cigarettes were once so integral to life in Australia that half the population were regular smokers and work coffee breaks were nicknamed "smokoes", but the entire country is now on course to join Norway and Ireland in phasing out smoking in pubs and clubs by 2007.

Mosman has gone one step further, with laws coming into effect from the middle of next month which will outlaw smoking on roads and pavements within 20 metres (65ft) of outdoor dining areas. Smokers will also be banned from beaches and council-owned buildings, and from a small public park facing Sydney Harbour at Balmoral Beach.

Stretching around the north shore of the harbour, Mosman is one of Australia's most affluent suburbs and has the lowest rates of smoking in New South Wales.

"These days smokers aren't allowed to smoke inside restaurants, so the outdoor areas of restaurants have become the smoke zone," the deputy mayor, Andrew Brown, told Australian Associated Press. "Anyone who wants to dine outside has to suffer the toxic cocktail that ... you're forced to inhale when you sit with them. I'm protecting the civil liberties of those that choose not to smoke."

Decisions by two other Sydney councils in May have already turned the beaches at Bondi, Manly, Tamarama and Bronte into no-smoking zones. Legislation being passed in Queensland will go further, and ban smoking at outdoor dining areas and patrolled beaches across the entire state by 2006.

Roughly 20% of the Australian population are smokers, compared with about 25% in Britain. Smoking has been banned in all Australian workplaces except pubs and bars, and at all indoor restaurant tables, for several years.

Mr Brown said the new Mosman regulations had been prompted by the numbers of people smoking at pavement tables outside cafes and restaurants.

Even the smoko itself has not been immune to the change in attitudes, with a survey last year finding that nearly half of Australian workers resented their colleagues for taking cigarette breaks.

Anne Jones, the chief executive of the anti-smoking group Ash Australia, said that up to 90% of Australians supported smoke-free pubs and bars.

"We still have 19,000 deaths a year caused by smoking," she said. "We know that if you put in these sorts of restrictions you can reduce overall consumption by up to 20% and you can reduce smoking among young people, so we're going to see better health and lives saved by this sort of legislation."

However, the Surf Life Savers Association in Queensland warned that the legislation could drive swimmers who wished to smoke away from patrolled beaches, leaving them without the protection of lifeguards.

Appeals from Australia's powerful gambling lobby also mean that casinos in most states are exempt from banning smoking in "high roller" rooms where wealthy gamblers can play in private.