Performers will recite anti-smoking poetry in the CBD's laneways next week during a Melbourne City Council campaign to raise awareness about its outdoor smoke-free zones.
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The council is splashing $30,000 on the initiative after it found only 15 per cent of residents, workers and visitors in the CBD knew the locations of the city's non-smoking areas.
Smoking was permanently banned at The Causeway laneway in May last year. The ban has since been expanded to City Square, QV Melbourne, Howey Place, Equitable Place, Block Place and Goldsbrough Lane.
Melbourne councillor Richard Foster said although smokers had stopped lighting up in the smoke-free areas, the council was worried people concerned about passive smoking were not taking advantage of the change.
The campaign will run from Monday to Friday next week, with performers from Speakers' Corner dancing and reciting poetry at the laneways and other spaces marked with "Breathe Easy" signs and flags.
The initiative will cost $6000 a day on average. Cr Foster said it was about getting value for money from the $94,000 already spent by council implementing the six newest smoke-free areas.
"I think anything that encourages people to take advantage of the enormous health benefit we are providing the community is worth investing in," Cr Foster said.
It comes ahead of the introduction of a state-wide smoking ban in outdoor dining areas, to be introduced in August 2017.
Smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths in Victoria, with tobacco blamed for 4000 deaths annually.
Inhaling the cigarette smoke of others can also cause deaths and illness. The World Health Organisation says there is no safe level of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke.
