ATLANTA — New research shows that smoking bans spare many children with asthma from being hospitalized, a finding that suggests smoke-free laws have even greater health benefits than previously believed.
Other studies have charted the decline in adult heart-attack rates after smoking bans were adopted. The new study, conducted in Scotland, looked at asthma-related hospitalizations of kids, which fell 13 percent a year after smoking was barred in 2006 from workplaces and public buildings, including bars and restaurants. Before the ban, admissions had been rising 5 percent a year in Scotland, which has a notoriously poor health record among European countries.
Earlier U.S. studies, in Arizona and Kentucky, reached similar conclusions. But this was the largest study of its kind. It is published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine.
