Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to cut New York City’s smoking rate to 12 percent of the populace by 2012 and may make parks and beaches smoke-free as his administration extends a 10-part public health campaign.

The percentage of adults who smoke fell to 16.9 percent in 2007 from 21.5 percent in 2002, the year Bloomberg won passage of a smoking ban that extends to bars and restaurants. The city’s “Take Care New York” health goals, first introduced in 2004, sought to reduce the rate to 18 percent by 2008.

Among the proposals in Take Care New York 2012 is an expansion of the ban to cover facilities overseen by the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation.

“We have to continue to move the goals to even higher levels,” Bloomberg said in an address at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center in midtown Manhattan today.

City officials haven’t yet devised “a specific strategy for reducing smoking in parks,” said Jessica Scaperotti, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The idea is being floated as part of efforts to keep people as free from involuntary exposure to smoke as possible, she said.

The city’s health policy also seeks to curtail preventable hospital visits, reduce teen pregnancy, boost regular condom use, increase colorectal cancer screening and cut consumption of sugary beverages. The plan, which will track progress with 10 health indicators, focuses especially on narrowing disparities among racial and socioeconomic groups and establishing lifelong healthy habits among children, Bloomberg said.

Anti-Smoking Recognition

The mayor, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent company, Bloomberg LP, was awarded the 2009 Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service for making public health a top priority and for using his personal wealth to advance health research. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health at his alma mater in Baltimore is named in his honor.

Bloomberg is seeking re-election to a third term in November, running on the Republican and Independence party ballot lines.

In today’s address, he acknowledged his role as the city’s chief anti-tobacco advocate by saying how smokers at street fairs yesterday tried to hide their cigarettes when he passed.

“Social pressure really does work,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeremy R. Cooke in New York at jcooke8@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 14, 2009 14:47 EDT