All bar and restaurant patios, as well as playgrounds and sports fields, will be off limits in the new year

The world keeps shrinking for smokers.

As of New Years Day, it will be illegal to smoke on any bar or restaurant patio in Ontario, the province announced Friday.

Smoking is not only banned on public playgrounds and sports fields, it will be illegal to smoke within 20metres of them.

Sales of tobacco also will be prohibited anywhere on a college or university campus.

The new rules come as no surprise. London North Centre MPP Deb Matthews announced the new restrictions were coming a year ago when she was health minister.

The new provincial rules are tougher than the ban on smoking imposed by city council last year, which specified a nine-metre no-smoking zone around parks and recreational facilities. But council took no action on a recommendation from the Middlesex-London Health Unit to ban smoking on open patios, with some councillors arguing it would drive some bars and restaurants out of business.

Health unit manager Linda Stobo said the number of bars and restaurants affected will be limited because many have covered patios already subject to the smoking ban and about 20 establishments have voluntarily moved to end smoking on their patios.

One of them is Rich Hunter, owner of the King Edward Pub in Ilderton.

He banned smoking on his rear patio two years ago.

It was a business decision. It is what the majority of our customers wanted, he said.

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All bar and restaurant patios, as well as playgrounds and sports fields, will be off limits in the new year