The Evening Press at York has joined forces with the local primary care trust to wipe out smoking in public places.

The paper has launched the Yes To Clean Air campaign, which encourages businesses to shut down company smoking rooms and protect workers from secondhand smoke.

And the Evening Press has led the way by closing its own smoke room.

Liz Page, managing director of Newsquest (York) Ltd, which publishes the Evening Press, said: "I felt that York & County Press should join the spirit of the clean air campaign by encouraging staff to cut down on smoking.

"In the future, most workplaces are likely to be entirely smoke-free and I suspect that one day we will look back and remember those old-fashioned times when smoking was still allowed inside the building."

Evening Press MD Liz Page (left) with PCT chief executive Jeremy Clough and director of public health Rachel Johns