Lance Armstrong
© AFP/Getty Images Alex Wong

WASHINGTON (AFP) - "I've asked all the presidential candidates whether America should be smoke-free," he told a Senate committee hearing on how to tackle cancer.

"The consensus is that it's better left to the cities and states," he said, agreeing that state- or community-level bans were "the way to go."

"Second-hand smoking is something I'm very passionate about," he told the committee.

"I don't like to sit next to someone who's smoking in a restaurant -- I raced for 15 years in Europe and I've been around enough cigarette smoke to last me a lifetime," said Armstrong, who overcame metastisized testicular cancer to win every Tour de France from 1999 through 2005.

Since he retired from professional cycling, Armstrong has become a leading advocate in the fight to beat cancer, a disease which, he told the hearing, claims 560,000 American lives a year.

Around one-third of cancer deaths are linked to smoking.

Armstrong said banning smoking, or using other means to make people never start, or kick a tobacco habit, were good preventive measures against cancer.

"We know what works in terms of cancer prevention -- targeting tobacco, sun, diet and exercise.

"You now have cities like New York; Austin, Texas that are smoke-free," Armstrong lauded, before looking to the traditionally smoke-filled pubs, cafes and bars of Europe.

"Ireland has taken steps," he said.

"For God's sake, even Paris, France is smoke-free."

©AFP