SMOKING rooms in workplaces and ventilated no-smoking areas in pubs are not protecting non-smokers from the damaging effects of tobacco smoke, Welsh AMs were told

Scientists told a National Assembly committee examining ways of banning smoking in public places that only a total ban would protect non-smokers from the dangers of passive smoking.

But David Davies, AM for Monmouth, said: "I think banning or restricting smoke in public areas would be a mistake. It would hit pubs and clubs, for a start.

"Some pubs in Monmouth have smoke- free areas, which is great for non-smokers like me and my family, but to ban smoking altogether would stop certain customers spending their money and would drive smokers onto the street.

"I'd like to see the government encouraging people not to smoke, but this isn't the answer."

In January 2003, the Assembly voted in favour of such a ban, but has no powers to implement one.

Giving evidence on behalf of the BMA, Dr Sinead Jones, director of Tobacco Control, said ventilation systems gave people a false sense of security by removing the smell of smoke.

Dr Jones, along with Dr Richard Lewis, Welsh secretary of the BMA, and Dr Norman Vetter, a reader in public health at Cardiff University, told the committee, set up in June, that national legislation was needed.

"The voluntary approach panders to the slowest of progress," said Dr Jones.

Simon Clark, director of pro-smoking pressure group Forest, said: "The vast majority of studies can find no clear link between lung cancer and passive smoking."

He said so few non-smokers get lung cancer that the increased risk of the disease was relatively small.

"If you live in an industrial society it is very difficult to talk about having a right to pure air."

He added that asthma sufferers whose condition was worsened by passive smoking had an allergy, which meant they should change their lifestyle to suit.

"People are allergic to cats and dogs but we're not going to ban pets."