As our campaign gets under way to help York businesses get clean air, former Evening Press journalist Liz Todd, says she prefers life in a smoke-free New York.

WHEN I moved from York to New York two years ago it took me a while to notice the clean air. As a non-smoker I had other things to worry about - uprooting from my Malton office to a Manhattan workspace and adjusting to life in the Big Apple.

But gradually I started to realise that I could go days at a time without even a whiff of smoke. My editor showed me round the office, but he did not mention cigarette breaks. Few of my colleagues smoke, and the ones who do dash outside for the fastest break they can manage before the boss notices they've gone. There are no "smoking rooms", only "no-smoking rooms".

In March 2003, New York passed a statewide smoking ban, the third state ban in America after California and Delaware. It is illegal to smoke in virtually all businesses, and fines are set at a hefty $1,000 (almost £500).

Exemptions include your own home and car, but even the smallest of businesses must comply - if you employ at least one person then it is no smoking in your workplace.

Smokers who crave the weed have to go outside, and in a city where temperatures drop to -10C or lower in the winter, that means people smoke fast out on the street. Friends who smoke grumble about feeling persecuted, complaining they are treated like second-class citizens. But many of them admit they are trying to quit, and every one of them smokes less now that the ban is in place. It is not pleasant to get that nicotine fix in the pouring rain, and in the summer it is no better, with unbearable humidity and temperatures of 35C.

Air conditioning keeps the offices, and the non-smokers, cool.

New Yorkers don't huddle on street corners for a smoke because they would get in the way of pedestrians trying to get somewhere in a hurry. Instead people lurk outside their work, and often there are spaceship-shaped "butt collectors" to discourage people from stubbing out on the sidewalks.

Cigarettes do still litter the gutters but, in Manhattan at least, the street cleaners are out regularly. Property owners are responsible for the sidewalk fronting their building in the city, so although there may be dozens of cigarette butts outside a bar at night, when it opens up the next day they are usually swept away.

Bars and restaurants are covered by the same smoking ban to protect their staff, which means that socialising in the city can be pretty much a smoke-free existence. Even the dingiest "dive" bars, in cramped, windowless basements, have a healthier feel to them. Yes, they may be a little fusty and they may smell of beer, but at least that won't give you cancer.

In this city of tiny apartments, owning a washing machine (and therefore a decently-sized living space to put it in) is a sign of serious money. I'm happy to spend a lot less time in the launderette because I don't need to purge my clothes of the smell of stale smoke.

I won't stay on this side of the Atlantic forever, but I may postpone my return until Britain catches up with a smoke-free policy of its own.

Updated: 11:25 Friday, May 13, 2005