When Lara Bose heard about Labour’s proposed ban on outdoor smoking areas, she was shocked. “Literally living with the person I got with in the smoking area three years ago. Keir hates love!” she posted on X.

Bose, 21, met her partner, Ben, in the outdoor smoking section of a venue in London three years ago, where they shared a cigarette and their first kiss. Describing their fateful encounter at the Under the Bridge venue at Stamford Bridge stadium in 2021, Bose said she spotted Ben, a student at the same university, and found him attractive and charming.

“There were so many people and it was so loud and so, in the end, I just asked him if he wanted to smoke and then we went out,” she said. “We just stayed out there talking until the bar closed and they made us leave. We’ve been pretty much together ever since.”

It was revealed this week that the government is considering a ban on smoking in outdoor places in England, including spaces and pavements outside clubs, bars and universities. The proposals quickly sparked widespread discussion, with the hospitality industry issuing stark warnings that the ban would be another “nail in the coffin” for struggling venues.

Several social media users said smoking areas were the focal point of a night out, a place to chat and flirt – and smoke – with strangers.

Although Bose said she understood the public health argument for the ban, she expressed concern about the lack of social spaces. “My partner has asthma; so does my dad. I’ve had pneumonia, likely as a result of smoking,” she said, but added that outdoor smoking areas were “one of the last places where people feel able to just strike up a conversation with a complete stranger”.

Office for National Statistics figures from last year showed dementia as the leading cause of death in England and Wales, but smoking was another major factor in preventable illness and death.

Dr Layla McCay, the director of policy at the NHS Confederation, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday: “It is absolutely the health challenge of our time. It’s the leading cause of preventable illness in the UK, so we are heartened to see that progress is being made and that the intention is moving forward to really address one of Britain’s main drivers of health inequalities.”

Nixon Kohyrelon, 25, a ticket broker who lives in Coventry, said he had never smoked, but echoed similar sentiments to Bose on socialising outside venues: “In the smoking area, that’s when the magic happens.”

Kohyrelon said he and his friends would often speak to people they were attracted to and meet strangers in the smoking areas of nightclubs. “The easiest way is: ‘Have you got a cigarette?’ And from this magic word, everything can happen.”

Sophie, 25, met her boyfriend of seven years, Nick, 27, on her first day at university in the smoking area of their accommodation. “There’s every chance we might never have met if we didn’t have that smoking ice-breaker,” she said. “Now he’s moved to the UK, we live together, and I owe it all to that pouch of Golden Virginia tobacco.”

Sophie said she understood the dangers of smoking, but described smoking areas as “part of British culture”. “It’s a chance for people to meet in person rather than on apps – it’s buzzy and fun and I wouldn’t change it. I’ve met my boyfriend, made friends and cemented relationships through smoking areas, and I’d be gutted for that to be lost.”