NEW YORK -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is avidly anti-smoking, said he wanted to toughen New York's anti-smoking law by banning cigarette smoking in all restaurants and bars to protect workers.

"It is just a health risk that workers should not be exposed to," Bloomberg said at a news conference. "If there were asbestos in the air we would immediately close the place down ... this is just as dangerous."

If the New York City Council passed the amendment to a 1995 law that forbids smoking in all restaurants with more than 35 seats, America's biggest city would join two states -- California and Delaware -- and scores of towns that ban smoking in almost every workplace, including bars and restaurants, Reuters reported.

Bloomberg, a businessman who was elected on his first bid for public office when he become mayor in January, won approval from the state legislature this year to raise taxes on cigarettes, pushing the cost of a pack of cigarettes to $7.50 in the city.

The mayor, a billionaire who founded the Bloomberg International Financial News and Information Company, has generously funded public health. Johns Hopkins University's School of Public Health in Baltimore, for instance, takes his name.

He does not disguise his dislike for smoking.

"Smoking kills people," Bloomberg said on Friday in his weekly WABC Radio show. He said every year 350,000 people die in the United States alone from smoking-related diseases.

"I've always been amazed why everybody isn't up in arms against smoking. You really have to be out of your mind to smoke, it's killing you," Bloomberg said.

The new measure, which Bloomberg said was intended to provide a smoke-free environment for bartenders, waiters and waitresses, was expected to be sent to the City Council on Monday.

It will be opposed by some restaurant and bar owners and the organizations that represent them. The New York State Restaurant Association said it believes the New York laws are some of the strictest in the country and should not be changed.