Previous studies showed that smoking reduced male sperm counts and that women who smoked reduced their chances of conceiving. One study* which followed the fertility outcomes of 8,500 couples trying for a baby for ten years suggested that a non-smoking woman exposed to tobacco smoke either at work or at home could have her chances of taking more than twelve months to conceive increased by 14%. If she was living with someone who smoked 20 cigarettes a day these odds were increased to 34%.

When the Daily Mail told 250 people in Bristol the above and then asked whether, given this, they would support a ban on smoking in public places, 80% said that they would.

* by Dr Chris Ford and colleagues at Bristol University. Published in Fertility and Sterility October 2000 edition, which is published by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.