SARATOGA SPRINGS - Ordering a beer and lighting a cigarette were once fiercely defended as inseparable rights by smokers.

But three years after New York's indoor smoking ban went into effect, diners and bar hoppers are growing accustomed to stepping outside and public support for the law is steadily growing, according to a new report by the state Health Department.

“It makes me smoke less, and you don't smell,” said Hilmer Hall, a 29-year-old Saratoga Springs resident who recently stepped into the warm summer afternoon for a cigarette.

Hall is among the 80 percent of New Yorkers who now support the once controversial law, including between a third to a half of smokers. Public support for the Clean Indoor Air Act was just 60 percent when it first went into effect in 2003 and rose to 73 percent the following year, according to the report.

Anti-smoking advocates say the ban, higher cigarette taxes and the state's aggressive anti-smoking campaign are pushing smokers onto the fringe and driving down smoking rates, which are now just below 20 percent in New York state. Carolyn Littlefield, a 44-year-old Florida resident in town for the summer horse racing season, said New York's rules helped her quit nearly two years ago.

“I felt like I had leprosy. After a while you end up outside smoking by yourself. So many people don't smoke now,” Littlefield said while enjoying a drink at a popular downtown restaurant and bar.

While California and Delaware were the first states to enact such laws, New York's ban energized the national anti-smoking movement, said Peter Slocum, spokesman for the American Cancer Society. The group says 13 states now have similar laws.

“The fact that it worked in New York made it a lot easier for political leaders in other states to get behind it,” Slocum said. “These laws have the effect of de-normalizing tobacco use and gradually shifting society's thinking.”

Nationally, a 2005 Gallup poll found 54 percent of Americans supported a smoking ban in restaurants, up from 45 percent in 2003.

The report by the health department found the ban hasn't affected business, contrary to the outcry of many tavern and restaurant owners when the law was first passed. Those findings echo similar results in California. The New York report also found exposure to secondhand smoke was cut in half in the first year after the ban went into effect.

Some opponents of the ban dismiss the findings as just the latest anti-smoking propaganda.

“What else would you expect? It's just as bad as the tobacco industry's (advertising),” said Audrey Silk, founder of the smokers' rights group NYC Clash. The group believes laws shouldn't dictate whether smoking should be permitted in private establishments. And there are plenty of smokers - and nonsmokers - who agree.

“It's a choice. If you don't like to smoke, don't walk into a smoking bar,” said Suzanne Dormandy, manager of Tin & Lint, a bar on a popular strip of downtown Saratoga Springs.

Unlike other bars and restaurants in the neighborhood, Tin & Lint doesn't serve food or have a patio that allows smokers to remain on the premise. Once people step outside for a cigarette, they have a tendency to drift down the strip to other bars, Dormandy said.

For other business owners, the ban placates the majority of their clientele who are nonsmokers.

Dale Easter, owner of Professor Moriarty's, banned smoking a few months before the law went into effect to appease his customers who don't smoke.

“A lot of the clientele were getting angry, so it was just common sense,” Easter said.

While Florida resident Littlefield thinks it should be up to the owner to enact bans, she has no complaints about the law. Since she quit smoking nearly two years ago, the ban now works in her favor.

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On the Net:

New York State Health Department, www.health.state.ny.us

American Cancer Society, www.cancer.org

NYC Clash, www.nycclash.com/

AP-ES-07-27-06 1546EDT