SO, more than one in every four deaths among people aged 34 or older in Worcestershire is down to cigarettes.

There'll be some for whom that fact will come as a shock. Well, it shouldn't. Alarm we can understand, but not surprise.

The figures come as the Government considers whether it should follow the likes of Ireland and Scotland by outlawing smoking in confined public places.

Over the years, the civil liberties lobby has consistently pushed the debate on to the back-burner.

But those who argue that they have a right to do unto their lungs whatever they wish - which they do - have slowly been out-shouted by those who agree that they can, so long as they don't curtail someone else's life in the process.

Thus it seems to be simply a question of when, not if a ban is introduced in England and Wales as well.

There are plenty of common sense reasons for it to happen.

The damage to the nation's health says it's a mug's game that leaves our environment like a tip and our hospitals under a level of pressure that can't be justified by the desperate claim that tobacco taxes help to pay for the doctors and nurses on wards.

The truly good news in today's report is that, in Worcestershire, fewer than one in four of us smokes. That used to be more than one in two.

The writing's on the wall. The sooner a ban happens, the better we'll all be.