MOST smokers want to quit. They are plagued by two questions: why did I start, and why can't I stop?

The second question is easier to answer than the first. Nicotine is as addictive as heroin or cocaine, according to the Royal College of Physicians. That is why willpower alone is often not enough to defeat the powerful physical craving for tobacco.

With help, however, anyone can kick the habit. And that fact underpins our pioneering campaign to help York and district become smoke-free.

Run with the Selby and York Primary Care Trust, Yes To Clean Air asks businesses large and small to banish smoking on their premises.

The Walmgate offices of York & County Press, publishers of the Evening Press, have just gone smoke-free and we want to encourage other companies to do the same.

More than two people are likely to die from secondhand smoke in the workplace per working day, new evidence has revealed. It is time to send passive smoking the same way as other industrial diseases.

The smoke-free policy also helps addicts quit by making their habit inconvenient. The trust can back this up with workplace visits offering advice on giving up.

Even pubs and restaurants would benefit, judging by surveys which show more people would eat and drink out if smoke was banished.

It's time York quit smoking for good. For good health, for good times - for the good of all our residents.

Updated: 11:21 Monday, May 09, 2005