Smoking is to be discouraged in city bus stops and on council sports fields and playgrounds following this week's adoption of an extended smokefree policy.

Tauranga City Council this week decided to install signs at specific outdoor areas around the city in hopes to discourage people from smoking.

Smoking is being discouraged in council owned spaces.

Council is going to evaluate and monitor the effectiveness of the policy particularly in high use areas such as the Willow Street bus stops and Memorial Park.

District Health Board manager for health equity planning and funding Brian Pointon stated in submissions that once people get used to smokefree playgrounds, active reserves, bus stops and car parks outside council public facilities – then the council may consider extending the smokefree environment to include beaches, al fresco dining areas beside public footpaths and other open spaces.

In response to councillor Murray Guy's comments that he finds it offensive that patients smoke outside Tauranga Hospital, Brian says it is a transitional phenomenon.

The District Health Board decided against establishing a smoking area at the back, because that would send a message that smoking was okay in certain areas, says Brian.

'We are going through a difficult phase at the moment, an interim phase where smokers are going out onto the street, and it doesn't look good,” says Brian.

'We don't want them smoking on our property for a whole range of reasons.

'I think in time when the smoking population gets down to very small numbers towards smokefree NZ by 2025, by that we mean less than five per cent of people smoking, then it will become less of an issue.”

The policy received 14 submissions, most of them supporting the policy on health grounds. One smoker objects to the policy, saying the city council has jumped on a bandwagon setting a precedent for the legal encroachment on the personal freedoms of New Zealanders.

Resident Anna Rogers told council next it will be preventing taking children to the beach for fear of UV exposure, and preventing elderly people having a companion animal.

'Will the police be asked to deal with naughty smokers having a puff while waiting for a bus,” says Anna.

'As for smokefree NZ, what about child abuse free NZ or road toll free NZ? How many children or road users are in graves or maimed for life because someone had a smoke? How many women sought refuge in Tauranga Women's refuge in 2012 because of smoking?

'By all means educate about smoking but don't be sucked into the hype.”

Western BOP District Council, the BOP Regional Council the Heart Foundation all entered supporting submissions.

The Heart Foundation says it has many thousands of supporters deeply committed to protecting their children and grandchildren from exposure to tobacco, say submitters Sandie Ritchie and Julie Sargisson

The overwhelming majority of smokers start when they are young, and once they have started it is very difficult to stop because of the nicotine addiction.

Creating smokefree environments can encourage people to quit, support those trying to quit and reduce the uptake by non-smokers, particularly the young.

Reducing the number of places where smoking is perceived as normal is vital to protecting children and achieving the national goal of a smokefree New Zealand by 2025.

Cardiovascular diseases like heart diseases, stroke and vascular disease are NZ's biggest killer taking 15 people every day, and smoking is the most preventable cause of these diseases. Smokers are almost twice as likely to have a heart attack as people who have never smoked.

Smoking is also a major contributor to health and life expectancy disparities between Maori and pacific populations and other New Zealanders.