Acouncil move to put up signs asking people not to smoke in Bath's play areas has provoked a tired and predictable backlash about "nanny state" action in some quarters.
There is justifiable concern about misplaced levels of health and safety paranoia, and about wrapping people up in so much cotton wool that they are not allowed to make mistakes, nor to live with the consequences of their life choices.
But smoking – like drinking, careless driving, and drugs, to name but a few – doesn't just punish the participant.
Innocent lives get drawn in – and there are none more innocent than the impressionable souls, spirits, bodies and brains of our children.
No one wants their clothes, skin and hair to reek of secondhand tobacco.
But this welcome move by Bath and North East Somerset Council and its partner health bodies isn't simply about passive smoking and air pollution.
Asking adults to show some self-restraint for a few minutes is more about setting a good example – around their own children, but also around other people's.
Only when smoking becomes out of the ordinary, unusual and more publicly unacceptable will we be able to make the next quantum leap in turning back the tide of damage wreaked by smoking.
So, no, this is not the nanny state in action.
This is the state at its very best, intervening in a positive and restrained way for the common good.
