Concrete proof that public smoking bans work

At a major international conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, experts from around the world were given concrete proof that public smoking bans are effective when it comes to health benefits.

At the international event, Scottish health officials said that the smoke-free legislation implemented there in March 2006 was already having results in the form of significant health improvements, particularly in those who do not smoke.

It appears that early research has revealed that hospital admissions for heart attacks at nine Scottish hospitals, which account for two-thirds of heart attacks in Scotland, have already fallen dramatically, and heart attacks among non-smokers fell by a fifth.

The smoking ban has also reduced exposure to smoke in the general population, particularly among bar workers, and the ban has had a high level of public support.

Professor Jill Pell, from Glasgow University, revealed that in the ten months before the ban started last year, there were 3,235 admissions for heart attacks to the hospitals studied; but in the same ten-month period following the ban, visits were down to 2,684.

This represents a fall of 17 per cent and the biggest drop was seen in non-smokers, with admissions down 20 per cent from 1,630 to 1,306.

Patients were asked if they were smokers or nonsmokers, and their answers double-checked through blood tests to detect levels of cotinine, the product into which nicotine is converted by the body.

Experts say the drop in exposure to passive smoking means many people are no longer inhaling the dangerous chemicals which were contributing to heart attacks; cigarette smoke causes a fatty build-up in the arteries known as atherosclerosis, which can cause clots to form, leading to heart attacks.

Professor Pell says the smoking ban encourages smokers to reduce smoking or quit altogether; she also says the findings support studies in other countries which have also shown heart attacks fell as a result of smoking bans.

Professor Pell says it is known that smoking causes thousands of heart attacks in non-smokers each year and even more in smokers.

Other research has revealed how bar staff had seen their health improve after the smoking ban and non-smoking bar workers saw their exposure to smoke, which is measured by saliva tests, fall by 89 per cent after the ban.

Air quality in pubs also improved and experts say the research demonstrates the public health benefits of the smoking ban.

Another study has found that there was no evidence the ban would mean adults smoked more at home and more children would be exposed to secondary smoke, which had also fallen among all children by 39 per cent.

Professor Candace Currie and colleagues from Edinburgh University studied more than 2,500 11-year-olds in Scotland before the smoking ban, and a similar number after the ban and did find that 19 per cent of the children studied were still exposed to levels of secondary smoke that were shown to damage their arteries.

The study is published online by the British Medical Journal along with three other studies.