Bar staff at a Birmingham pub have signed up to a nationwide campaign to end smoking in all workplaces.

Workers at the Bishop Vesey, in Sutton Coldfield, are supporting Cancer Research UK's petition which will be handed in to Downing Street next week.

In November, the Government announced plans to ban smoking in all workplaces and enclosed public spaces by 2008.

However this does not include pubs or bars that do not serve food.

Cancer Research UK wants the public to join it in lobbying the Government to remove the exemptions, which would apply to about 11,000 pubs and up to 20,000 private members clubs.

Bar worker Rachel Harper, aged 19, said she was delighted the pub had gone smoke-free after losing her Aunt Phyllis to lung cancer less than a year ago.

Miss Harper, from Boldmere, Sutton Coldfield, said: "She was a smoker all her life so there's no doubt that cigarettes contributed towards her death.

"The proposed Government ban is good but it doesn't go far enough.

"Thousands upon thousands of people will still be exposed to second-hand smoke at work which is simply unacceptable. "The only way to change this is by sending a clear signal to the Government that the public are overwhelmingly in favour of making all workplaces smoke-free."

Yesterday the British Medical Association (BMA) added its voice to the debate, stating that passive smoking kills whether or not there are "pies with the pints."

The BMA said such exemptions were "arbitrary, inequitable and have no basis in the health evidence".

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, the BMA's head of science and ethics, said: "Each year of delay condemns around 50 hospitality workers to die as a result of exposure to secondhand smoke while at work - this is totally unacceptable and completely unnecessary.

"The situation in New York, Ireland and other cities and countries that have gone smoke-free show that these policies do not harm business, they do not cost jobs.

"The policies are popular, they encourage people to quit and they protect health and save lives."

Brewers Wetherspoons, which own the Bishop Vesey, is due to make all its pubs smoke-free before the Government deadline of 2008.

Miss Harper added: "I was delighted when Wetherspoons announced that we would be the first of their pubs in Birmingham to go smoke-free.

"Bar staff have been put at risk from second-hand smoke for far too long.

"Why should we suffer when the Government acknowledges that staff in other workplaces should not be exposed to the same risk?"

Recent figures show that exposure to second- hand smoke causes 600 deaths each year across the UK, including the death of one hospitality worker a week.

* To sign the petition visit www.cancercampaigns.org.uk before September 1.