SMOKING blackspots will see dramatic health improvements with the introduction of the smoking ban in public places today.

Southampton is one of the worst areas in the south when it comes to smoking prevalence, with up to 32.5 per cent of people regularly puffing.

The city, which stands alongside the likes of Portsmouth, Reading, Crawley and Oxford with its numbers of smokers, is expected to see huge reductions in smoking-related diseases after the ban on smoking in any enclosed public space is imposed.

The latest figures, from 2005 to 2006, show 37,657 men and 20,146 women were admitted to hospital in the south-east with conditions caused by smoking.

One consultant at Southampton General Hospital says the ban cannot come in quick enough.

Anindo Banerjee sees patients living painful and miserable lives as a result of cigarette smoke every day.

Three-quarters of patients who end up in his care do so as a result of smoking or passive smoking.

The consultant in respiratory and general medicine hopes the ban will be the first step in the direction of a total ban on smoking in the UK.

He said: "It's a small but important step in the improvement of the health of the nation.

"Lung cancer is the commonest cause of death from malignant diseases in the UK.

"It causes more deaths each year than the next three most common cancers combined, which are breast cancer, colon cancer and prostate cancer.

"Smoking also causes heart disease and makes conditions like diabetes worse.

"Stopping people smoking in enclosed public places begins the process of banning smoking altogether - that is without question what I want to see happen."

Dr Banerjee said three-quarters of the patients he sees in the outpatients department are in hospital due to tobacco.

He said: "At any one time, more than half the patients being admitted to hospital have tobacco-related diseases, from direct or passive smoking.

"Tobacco is lethal stuff. If I said I knew a drug that addicts nearly everyone that uses it and damages every single user, you would think I was talking about a class A drug.

"Smoking doesn't just make you ill - it makes you miserably ill, unable to move and unable to breathe."

The consultant hopes the ban will lead to a change in attitude towards smoking.

He said: "We won't see a change in hospitals for five to ten years, but hopefully by then those who give up will live better, longer and healthier."

Across the south-east, smoking-related diseases cost the NHS £100m a year and smoking-related sick days cost industry £418m in 2005.