IF you're a smoker, take a piece of paper and write down the reasons why you should smoke and the reasons you shouldn't.

People who do that will have taken the first step on the way to quitting, according to BANS (Bermuda Advocates for Non Smoking), organisers of today's Quit Smoking Day.

Charles Jeffers, BANS public relations officer, said: "The first thing you should do is not to try and quit, but to try and really, really want to quit. If you're not sure that you want it, there's no way you'll be able to do it.

"If you take a piece of paper and on one side write down the reasons why you should smoke and on the other side write down why you shouldn't, then you'll look at it and think you must be crazy to smoke."

BANS will be offering information on how to quit smoking at lunchtime today at a table stationed in Washington Mall. Details of the courses available and general advice on the first steps to take will be available.

The pressure group will also be launching a full-scale publicity campaign on the perils of smoking.

People were becoming more aware of the dangers of smoking and there was a greater appreciation ? both locally and globally ? of the need to take action to protect people from the effects of second-hand smoke, Mr. Jeffers said.

Politicians of both Bermuda's main political parties have voiced support for planned legislation that would ban smoking in all public places and prohibit anyone aged under 18 from buying cigarettes. Health Minister Patrice Minors has said that legislation should be passed during the current parliamentary session.

"Some restaurants have gone non-smoking and many others have a non-smoking section," Mr. Jeffers said. "Restaurants' biggest concern about going non-smoking was that they would lose business. But a lot of people now are asking for non-smoking restaurants.

"If you go to Monty's, for example, people are happy to take their kids there on a Saturday morning because they know they are going in to a clean environment. The restaurant is finding that it doesn't have to change its air filters for its air-conditioning so regularly, nor paint the walls so often.

"The problem with non-smoking sections is that smoke doesn't recognise the boundaries. And people often have to walk through a smoking section to get to their table."

He added that there were now around 45 smoke-free restaurants and diners in Bermuda, compared to around 20 a year ago.

Mr. Jeffers said he defended smokers' right to smoke. But he said that right should extend only up to the point where it infringed upon the rights of others not to breathe in their smoke.

"While we are concerned about the health of smokers, our major concern is how it affects the health of non smokers. I know a lot of people who smoke and who are careful, but I think people need to be educated about how harmful smoke can be.

"Smoking hurts your loved ones. There are parents who go outside to smoke for the sake of their children but come back in a hug the child and their clothes are full of smoke so the child inhales it.

"I believe that smoking is still the number one preventable cause of death. And it's not just death, it's about quality of life. There are people who continue for years suffering from smoking-related diseases.

"The health care costs associated with that are enormous and we all pay for it. We should all be aiming for a fitter and healthier Bermuda."

Mr. Jeffers said the financial cost of smoking also applied to the world of work.

"Smoking employees should be paid less," he said. "Every time they have a cigarette, they go outside and stop work for a few minutes. I've see some smokers take a book outside with them. People don't say, 'I have to drink coffee so I have to take a few minutes off work to drink it'.

"Also smokers get ill more often and so are more likely to be absent from work." Mr. Jeffers welcomed the imminent anti-smoking legislation, but said it could go further. He said 18 as a minimum age for buying cigarettes was not sufficiently low.

"In some states in the US it's 21 and we should have the same here," Mr. Jeffers said.

"We also need to have tighter control on cigarette machines. In Tobacco Bay, there is a cigarette machine that you need to buy tokens for. But in Dockyard there is a machine that takes money. So anyone, of any age, could use it. All machines should be token-operated."

Bermuda's fourth Quit Smoking Day has the support of Minister Minors, as well as Shadow Health Minister Michael Dunkley, whose own father died from smoking related health problems in his 40s and who has pushed hard for tighter legal restrictions on smoking.

Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Cann and organisations including asthma group Open Airways, the TB, Cancer and Health Association and Argus Insurance are also backing today's theme.