Scotland’s Smoking Ban Means Fewer Kids in Hospital With Asthma
Scotland’s smoking ban helped the health of more than just bar workers, a new study finds.
Fewer children were hospitalized with asthma after the ban took effect in 2006, according to research published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. The scientists examined hospital records for children between January 2000 and October 2009. They found that the rate of admissions for asthma fell by about 18 percent a year after March 2006, when it became illegal to light up in Scottish bars, pubs and restaurants.
An earlier study found a drop in the respiratory symptoms reported by bar workers in Scotland. The new research indicates “that the benefits of such legislation can extend to populations other than those with occupational exposure to environmental tobacco smoke,” wrote the scientists, led by Daniel Mackay from the University of Glasgow.
Ireland was the first country to introduce a smoking ban in 2004. Since then, European nations including Italy and Norway have followed suit. Philip Morris International Inc., the world’s largest publicly traded tobacco company, estimated in February that cigarette shipment volumes in the European Union fell 3.3 percent last year, the biggest drop of any region where it sells products.
The research was funded by the Scottish health system.
To contact the reporter on this story: Marthe Fourcade at mfourcade@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.net.
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