LONDON - Soon, smokers in the United Kingdom could be prohibited from lighting up in public parks and cars as part of newly created "zero-tolerance" zones, the Daily Mail reports. Scotland banned indoor smoking in public places in 2006, with England, Northern Ireland and Wales following a year later.

The Localism Bill allows smoking bans to be extended to areas residents request. Local councils and the National Health Service trusts have picked play parks and other outdoor locales to make "smoking history for our children."

Councils in Warrington and Stony Stratford are considering smoking bans in cars with children. Stony Stratford councilmember Paul Bartlett said senior town council members supported such a ban, but that they needed to okay of the Milton Keynes Council for it to pass. Bartlett would also like to prohibit smoking in any public street or open space in Stony Stratford.

Bill Wearing heads health and wellbeing at Cumbria Council, which is also thinking about expanding smoking bans to include outdoor venues. "No one wants to see anyone smoking near children??s play areas. It is getting to a stage where people think it is socially unacceptable in parks. Once it becomes socially unacceptable, it becomes a lot easier to bring in laws."

These measures come after New York City outlawed smoking in parks and beaches earlier in 2011. Meanwhile, New Yorkers aren??t sure if its smoking ban has made a different, NBC New York reports. A recent Marist College poll discovered that 45 percent of respondents think the outdoor smoking ban works while 41 percent says it doesn??t. Sixty-nine percent appreciate the ban, while 26 percent said it is not good.