Leader: Are mobile phones the new cigarettes?

Moves are afoot to ban it in public places such as pubs and restaurants and it is already banned in many cinemas, theatres and concert halls. Many train lines now only permit it in a few coaches and a number of workplaces have outlawed it altogether.

We could be talking about smoking but could just as easily be talking about mobile phone use. The similarities between the two are increasing, partly due to the common denominator: people and their seeming inability to consider those around them.

We all know the feeling when you are sat in a restaurant, about to tuck into your meal when the couple of the next table light a couple of cigarettes and start puffing away, blowing their smoke across your meal. Is it any less unpleasant if you are trying to have a chat over a nice meal to have some boorish idiot shouting about "what Dave bloody did down the Red bloody Lion last night".

Many of us will vividly remember the feeling of being stuck on a train, pressed up against the window, next to somebody smoking away... and those of you not old enough to will doubtless disagree with the rest of this article. Similarly being on a commuter train next to somebody arranging "what time Marjory is picking up the twins from the nanny" (to balance out any perceived class-bias from the previous 'for instance'.)

Now people are beginning to man a backlash against mobile phone users that will likely lead to further bans. This writer's local pub bans the use of mobile phones after 7pm in the evening - and a welcome addition to the house rules it is, especially with a zero tolerance enforcement policy in place.

A recent poll revealed inconsiderate mobile phone users as a social pariah on a par with the likes of cowboy workmen. A silicon.com poll today revealed UK patience with such individuals has worn thin with 87.7 per cent of respondents saying they would support the jamming of mobile phones in public performance spaces such as cinemas, theatres and concert halls.

Many argue about being on-call, or parents who need to be in constant touch with the baby-sitter, even when in the cinema. The simplest answer is we coped before. Our parents coped.

It's not a life-support machine, it's a mobile phone. If it's switched off you will keep breathing.