The Cancer Council says more should be done to reduce smoking rates in Australia’s most addicted state.

In some regional Queensland councils, 23 per cent of adults like to inhale burning plant-matter packed with known carcinogens.

There is evidence that smoking is considerably more prevalent in the bush, with rural areas Charters Towers, Longreach and the Fraser Coast recording figures over 60 per cent higher than the state average.

Katie Clift from the Cancer Council says; “Eighty per cent of smokers want to quit”.

“Evidence shows that there are high levels of community support for smoking bans.

“Making public places in central Queensland smoke-free will protect people from the harmful effects of second-hand tobacco smoke, and encourage established smokers to quit,” she said, adding that smoking in Queensland costs more than $6 billion every year in health care, lost productivity, and premature death.

One mayor from far north Queensland says councils are not “health police”.

“All we can do is create an environment to get people outdoors,” Charters Towers Mayor Frank Beveridge says.

“We don't see it as local government's job to be the health police, same as we don't go out of way to tell people not to get melanoma, heart disease, liver disease and the list goes on.

“Like a lot of local governments, we're certainly very proactive in getting people outdoors with healthy lifestyle,” he said.

“It's very important to help people get over their issues, their health issues but at the same time, instead of ambulances at the bottom of the cliff, you've got to build that wall at the top of cliff to stop people from getting into those situations.”