AOL

More people's lives would be saved by banning smoking in public places than are lost every year in road accidents, campaigners are claiming.

To mark No Smoking Day, the campaign's director, Ben Youdan, said banning tobacco in pubs, bars and all workplaces would save 4,800 lives a year throughout Britain. He added that this would be almost 1,500 more than the 3,400 people killed on the roads each year.

Support from the public for a ban on smoking in enclosed public places has been steadily growing, but the Government has been slow to commit to bringing about such a law.

More research released today by campaigners Smoke Free London revealed that almost one in four (23 per cent) of men's deaths and one in eight women's deaths in London was caused by smoking - 10,500 deaths in those aged over 35 each year.

Their report, published with the London Health Observatory, also found that people with diseases caused by smoking took up 1,100 of the capital's hospital beds every day.

This is the equivalent of almost filling both Guy's and St Thomas's hospitals and costing the NHS in London at least £2 million every week.

Mr Youdan said banning smoking in the workplace would lead to half a million smokers giving up smoking and would have four times more impact on current smoking levels than last year's tobacco advertising ban.

An estimated 1.25 million smokers attempt to beat their addiction on No Smoking Day and campaigners believe a ban would help them further.

"85 per cent of former smokers actually support smoke-free public places because they fear that the tobacco temptation will be too great. We know from our research with smokers themselves that the pub is one of the times they're most at risk of relapsing," Mr Youdan said.