Prof Janet Hoek is encouraging the council to follow the moves made by the Wellington City Council and pass a bylaw to make more public areas smoke-free.
Prof Hoek is co-director of Aspire 2025, a University of Otago research group which supports the Government's goal of smoke-free New Zealand by 2025
She told councillors at a full council meeting yesterday that Dunedin had an opportunity to take the lead as one of New Zealand's progressive smoke-free
cities.
Introducing a bylaw would make a more emphatic statement about the city's stance on being smoke-free than the current policies, she said.
In 2014 the council adopted a policy which supported the goal of a smoke-free city through the promotion of environments and messages.
''A bylaw would make a more emphatic statement than the voluntary policies do. It's a message that when you're in Dunedin there are going to be various areas that are smoke-free for the health and wellbeing of the community.''
Cr Christine Garey asked, if the council took a staged approach to implementing any changes, where should it start?
Prof Hoek suggested footpaths outside schools and playgrounds, and beaches could be the areas first considered for any smoking ban.
If successful, it could then be expanded to cover public footpaths outside restaurants and bars as well as council-run events.
Cr Rachel Elder asked if there were any studies which showed the effectiveness of public smoke-free areas.
National surveys showed there was overwhelming support for smoke-free public areas and studies showed the increase in smoke-free areas reduced the acceptance of smoking, Prof Hoek said.
There would always been those who opposed increasing the number of smoke-free areas but people also opposed the banning of smoking in restaurants and bars when the law was introduced, she said.
''Sometimes you just need to say we have the 2025 goal and smoking brings no benefit to those who inhale it or people nearby.''
A basic timeline for introducing the smoke-free areas had been given to the council, she said.
Council staff would consider Prof Hoek's plans for possible discussion at the next meeting of the planning and environment committee.
