Asthma and premature births down 10% thanks to the smoking ban

The ban of smoking in public places has helped to reduce premature births and severe child childhood asthma attacks by 10%, according to research from Europe and the United States and published in the medical journal Lancet.

“Our research shows that smoking bans are an effective way to protect the health of our children,” said Jasper Been of the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Population Health Sciences, who led the study.

He says their findings should hopefully result in anti-smoking laws being implemented in those cities, countries and districts that do not currently have such restrictions in place.

The smoking ban was introduced in England in 2007, making it illegal to smoke in all enclosed public places such as restaurants, nightclubs, bars, restaurants and shopping centres. The ban has previously been shown to be highly effective at protecting people from the serious health problems associated with passive (secondhand) smoking, with a 5% drop in asthma hospital emergencies in the years following the ban.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) say tobacco is responsible for the deaths of six million people around the world annually. Over 600,000 of these deaths are not even people who smoke, but those who have died due to heavy exposure to secondhand smoke. Health experts have predicted the worldwide death toll will rise to eight million by 2030 if current trends are kept up.

According to WHO, alarmingly there is just 16% of the world’s population that feel the benefits of being protected by comprehensive smoke-free laws, with a shocking 40% of children around the world being regularly exposed to secondhand smoke.

The new research in the Lancet, involved researchers from the University of Edinburgh, Maastricht University, Hasselt University in Belgium, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital analysing data from over 2.5 million births and around 250,000 hospital visits in relation to asthma attacks and is the first comprehensive study assess exactly how anti-smoking legislation has impacted children’s health.

Co-author Professor Aziz Sheikh, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, Massachusetts, and the University of Edinburgh, says there is still a huge opportunity to improve the health of more children around the world.

“The many countries that are yet to enforce smoke-free legislation should in the light of these findings reconsider their positions on this important health policy question.”

There has never been a better time to quit smoking than now following a massive price reduction on a wide range of products and medications, and this includes the smoking cessation treatment Champix. For example, an online consultation for the Champix starter pack was £75, but this has now come down to just £38.95.For those already in possession of a private prescription, the price is even lower, at just £27.48!

Scottish cigarette display and vending machine ban begins on 29 April

From the 29 April this year, large shops will be banned from openly displaying cigarettes and smokers will no longer be able to purchase cigarettes from self-service vending machines as this will be outlawed too, the Scottish Government confirmed yesterday.

Smaller retailers however appear  to have a few years left before the new rules affect them as they will be given until 6 April, 2015 to fully abide by rules as laid out in the ‘Tobacco & Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2010’.

The legislation, which was approved in Scottish Parliament on 27th January 2010 by a massive majority, includes key points that are clearly crafted at making it difficult for under-18s to obtain tobacco and lessen the appeal of smoking. It has also been designed to prevent people lighting-up at an early age and later developing a possible whole range of health conditions that are connected to smoking such as: cancer, heart disease, stroke, asthma, high blood pressure, erectile dysfunction and many more.

According to Scottish Governmental statistics, smoking kills approximately 13,500 Scots each year (equivalent to one in five of all deaths), it is the cause of around 33,500 hospital admissions and results in the NHS Scotland spending around £400 million each year to treat smoking-related health conditions.

The Tobacco & Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2010:

. Bans the display of tobacco and smoking related products in shops.
. Bans the sale of tobacco from vending machines.
. Introduces a tobacco sales registration scheme, which will be free for retailers to join.
. Makes it an offence for under-18s to purchase tobacco.
. Makes it an offence for adults to buy tobacco for under 18s (proxy purchase).
. Gives trading standards officers powers to issue fixed penalty notices.
. Gives courts the power to ban retailers from selling tobacco where they have continually broken the law.
. The Act also amends the eligibility criteria for persons wishing to run a GP practice.

Only last December a legal challenge was launched by one of the world’s largest tobacco firms. The Supreme Court eventually dismissed the appeal by Imperial Tobacco, who claimed that the prohibiting of cigarette displays was strictly relevant to Westminster, and thus not within the scope of the Scottish Government. A committee of five judges unanimously ruled against Imperial, stating its arguments were not well-founded.

Michael Matheson, the Public Health Minister for the Scottish Government, said: “We know that reducing the number of people that smoke will have wide benefits for Scotland’s health and evidence shows that these bans will help prevent young people from taking up smoking. That is why we believe this is the right approach for Scotland and I am delighted that we are now in a position to implement these bans, which is a key step in maintaining Scotland’s position as a world leader on tobacco control. We have worked closely with retailers to set this date. We appreciate that smaller retailers need extra time to make the necessary changes and so we have decided that April 2015 represents a fair timescale for implementing the display ban for them.”