Such a ban “is neither possible nor desirable” Deborah Arnot, the director of Ash (Action on Smoking and Health) said.

“We want to help and encourage people not to smoke, not force them. But we do need more government action to cut the terrible death toll that smoking still causes in this country, year after year.

“We need to stop people smoking in front of children and in the workplace. And we need to regulate tobacco and nicotine products, so that smokers have safer and cheap alternatives to giving their money and their lives to the tobacco companies.”

Ash said that if it were possible to go back 400 years in time “it would be better for the world if tobacco had never been discovered”.

That would have avoided tens of millions of deaths, and the suffering and the disease that smoking has brought to families across the world.

“This year about 120,000 people will die in Britain from smoking-related illness. The ‘freedom’ to smoke has been bought at a terrible price,” Ash said. “But although we can understand the frustrations of doctors who have to deal every day with the consequences of smoking, we can’t simply ban it now. The story of prohibition of alcohol in the United States in the 1920s shows why it’s a bad idea.”

People had the freedom to make bad choices, Ash said, but that did not mean that anyone had a right to smoke at times and in places that hurt others. So a law against smoking in the workplace was both necessary and overdue.

“And while we don’t believe tobacco should be banned, it should certainly be regulated to reduce the harm it causes. It doesn’t make sense that nicotine replacement therapies, which provide nicotine in a way that is much less harmful than smoking, are more highly regulated than tobacco. Ash wants a Tobacco Regulatory Authority for this reason.”

Other cancer charities welcomed the debate stimulated by the Lancet editorial without backing its call for prohibition.

Macmillan Cancer Relief, the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, the British Lung Foundation and Cancer BACUP said that they did not support a total ban, as it was unclear whether people would actually stop smoking if it were illegal.

Peter Cardy, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Relief, speaking on behalf of the charities, said: “We believe the key issue is to prevent people from starting to smoke in the first place and to encourage smokers to give up. We urge the Government to take heed of the recent Royal Colleges call for legislation to make public places smoke-free since the system of voluntary self-regulation is failing.”

The British Lung Foundation said that it did not have a policy on a total ban, but supported a ban on smoking in public places. “The damage to lungs from second-hand smoke has long been acknowledged and the charity thinks it is vital that people protect themselves from these dangers,” a spokeswoman said.

“More than eight million people have a lung condition in the UK and all of them are severely aggravated by exposure to second-hand smoke. People should have the right to work in smoke-free environments which do not pose dangers to their health.”

The Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association said that The Lancet’s call was “excessive and unnecessary”.

Tim Lord, chief executive of the association, said: “There is no need for a ban on smoking. It is completely over the top. A ban would, in effect, criminalise 15 million people in the UK, who enjoy smoking: 27 per cent of the population smoke, and to propose making criminals of them all is just silly.”

“Smokers are well aware of the risks they run with smoking. Every single pack has had health warnings on it for decades and today 30 per cent of the front of all cigarette packs carries stark health messages.

“When will certain parts of our society stop treating people like children and leave them to make their own decisions about choices they make in their lives?”

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