THE revelation that Bournemouth Borough Council was banning employees from taking smoking breaks has sparked a heated discussion.

Dozens of readers visited the Daily Echo's website to leave their comments on our message board.

Have your say below. Click here to join our web poll under editor's choice. Or click here to join our Echo forum on the issue.

Tony from Poole said: "Good: smokers should be treated like the stinking (literally) losers that they are. Give it up and become fragrant, healthy, wealthy and successful."

"Badger" from Poole said: "On average smokers take 30 per cent more breaks than non smokers each day, which means that they are being paid while they take extra time off to feed their habit."

Phil said he was thinking of taking up smoking to get more breaks at work.

He said: "It definitely does cause resentment among non-smoking workers, as you can see from this debate."

Richard from Bournemouth is looking forward to July 1 when he can drink in smoke- free pubs.

He said: "In our office, the one person who smokes makes the effort to start 20 minutes early each day to make up for her breaks.

"If only the majority of smokers were that considerate. Personally, I'm looking forward to July 1, when we can walk into a pub and not emerge reeking of stale cigarette smoke."

Employers as well as employees left their comments on the website.

Mark from Bournemouth said: "As an employer I feel bad about the non-smokers' vastly better productivity as compared to smokers, who stretch every smoking break for as long as they can - usually until a supervisor goes out to chase them back in."

Plenty of people objected to the ban, however.

Tina from Bournemouth said: "It seems as a nation we're being encouraged to give up smoking but take up drinking and gambling instead."

Ex-smoker of 10 years Liz from Bournemouth said: "Smokers more than pay for their own habit, and Blair's government has introduced the smoking ban for one reason - pure spin! I feel people should be free to do what they want without being dictated to."

Smoker Andrew Barr from Poole said: "It's about time the government and workplaces stopped treating us like naughty children."