Franklin Square may become one of many new smoke-free zones including sections of Collins and Elizabeth streets

A TASMANIAN doctor is calling for a ban on smoking across the Hobart CBD as the council considers extending smoke-free zones across the city.

Picture: AAP IMAGE/Troy Snook

SMOKING  could be banned from public spaces across the entire Hobart CBD under a radical proposal to go before the city council tonight.

Hobart City Council Alderman Helen Burnet has called for council officers to identify more areas of the capital suitable to become smoke-free, such as Franklin Square and CBD streets.

Ald Burnet’s motion, to be voted on this evening, requests a report that also determines how successful the city’s current smoke-free zones have been.

The butt-out plan has won the support of the Alcohol, Tobacco and other Drugs Council of Tasmania and tobacco researcher Kathryn Barnsley.

ATDC chief executive Alison Lai said the initiative would not only reduce the health impact of tobacco, but also the environmental impact of cigarette butts which commonly litter the city’s footpaths and gutters.

“Passive smoking is a key issue, and reducing exposure to this is vital, as is de-normalising smoking across our communities,” she said.

A leading Tasmanian doctor has also called for on-the-spot fines to be handed out for smokers lighting up on city streets.

Michael Jackson, a pain specialist, has backed a citywide ban, and said he was sick of dealing with passive smoke and seeing cigarette butts littered across Hobart.

Alderman Helen Burnet is calling for a Hobart CBD ban on smoking. Picture: FIONA HARDING

“It’s disgusting, there needs to be a ban of smoking across the CBD,” Dr Jackson said.

“One of the ways to start this would be to ban smoking at all council benches and the 10 to 12 metres around them.”

Dr Barnsley praised the council for taking more action to widen smoke-free areas.

“It protects children, people with asthma and other respiratory illnesses,” she said.

“There are smoking hot spots across Hobart and the most obvious one is outside the Royal Hobart Hospital.”

Currently, smoking is not permitted in any outdoor dining or drinking area on land managed by the council.

Other locations when people are banned from lighting up include Trafalgar Place, Elizabeth Mall, Wellington Court, Hobart bus mall, Mathers Lane, Collins Court, Salamanca Square and all council enclosed car parks in the CBD.

An Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report released last month showed the Tasmanian smoking rate has failed to decline since 2010, in contrast to the rest of Australia.

The habit contributes to the death of more than 500 deaths in Tasmania each year.

Between 2010 and 2016 the number of people aged 14 and over lighting up daily fell in every state and territory except Tasmania.

Nationally the daily smoking rate decreased by 19 per cent to 12.2 per cent, but in Tasmania it rose from 15.9 to 16 per cent.

The state also had the highest rate of daily smokers under the age of 25 and the smoking rate of Tasmanians 60 and over grew by 38 per cent.