THE moaners and groaners have been predictably quick to react to Pendle council’s decision to put ‘No Smoking’ signs in all 57 of the borough’s outdoor play areas and skate parks.

Absurd phrases like ‘health fascists’ have been bandied about along with the weary argument that to tell someone not to pollute others with his or her filthy addiction is an interference with some sort of fundamental human right.

You’d think there’s a clause in the Magna Carta or the US constitution assigning everyone the right to light up and blow bronchitis-inducing smoke in people’s faces whenever and wherever they wish.

It’s true that there are thankfully now a lot of places where smoking is rightly banned and a lot more where it should be.

Banning smoking in pubs was a very sensible move but am I alone in objecting to having to pass through a wall of tobacco smoke every time I walk past a town centre pub outside which large numbers of people are standing on the pavement puffing?

Sadly Pendle council’s notices won’t actually have the force of law behind them and rely on goodwill and common sense.

Unfortunately you can’t bank on that.

Just look at the number of people who let dogs roam through children’s play areas in our parks and leave evidence of their visits behind – something else which is proven to be potentially dangerous to youngsters’ health.

Smoking should be banned in all public places outdoors and indoors.

If people insist on doing it then they should be forced to use places where there is no risk of non-smokers being contaminated.

The health risks of smoking and passive smoking are no longer open to sensible argument.

Anyone who tries to deny them belongs with that dwindling group of people who still believe the earth is flat.

Pendle council should send staff to the play areas to make polite requests to all the mums and dads who will predictably ignore the signs.

Embarrassment may not work of course but it is worth a try.

It will also mean speaking to the worrying number of teenagers who are still picking up the habit even though these days cigarettes can’t be all that much cheaper than heroin.

If all this sounds a bit self-righteous I do have a confession to make.

I smoked continuously from the age of 14 until I gave up more than 20 years ago when my GP quite bluntly told me I could expect to get chest infections every winter in escalating seriousness and was literally knocking decades off my life expectancy.

He also mentioned the effect my smoking was bound to have on my own children.

At home I have a copy of an ancient cine film taken by my dad which shows me leaning over my baby daughter changing her nappy – with a lighted cigarette in my mouth about nine inches from her face.

It was a different time, an age of ignorance, but I shudder every time I recall that scene.

We must use every weapon available to educate and eradicate such harmful habits.