Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said yesterday that he was leaning toward a ban on cigarette smoking at city parks and beaches, according to an article by Anemona Hartocollis in today's edition of The New York Times.

The article said that "Mr. Bloomberg said the ban made sense because it would cut the health risks of secondhand smoke and reduce littering by smokers," adding that when people at the parks and beaches are queried, 'they say they just don't want smokers there.'"

The city's health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, said yesterday that "smoking was the leading preventable cause of death among residents, killing 7,500 New Yorkers per year, more than AIDS, drugs, homicide and suicide combined," the article continued, adding that "he said a smoking ban would be the equivalent of bans on loud radios and glass bottles on beaches, and could save millions of dollars in trash cleanup."

The article said that "Dr. Farley cited a health department study, published online in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research in April 2009, that found that 57 percent of nonsmoking adult New Yorkers had elevated levels of cotinine, a marker for smoking, in their blood, compared with 45 percent nationally."

The study's researchers sampled New Yorkers in 2004, a year after the city's ban on smoking in most indoor working and public spaces took effect, and the article said that they "said the density of city living might be to blame."

A ban would probably have to be approved by the City Council, Dr. Farley said, the article said, adding that the "City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, is interested in the idea, a spokeswoman said, but 'feels that fines should be modest.'"

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California recently vetoed a bill that would have prohibited smoking at beaches and parks, the article added.