During the year that followed the law (2007) prohibiting smoking in closed places and workplaces in the United Kingdom, hospital admissions for childhood asthma were reduced by 12.3%.
Researchers from the National Health Service have determined that in subsequent years, hospitalizations for this reason have continued to decline. Since asthma affects one in 11 children in this country, the result of applying the regulations deserves to be taken into account. And more taking into account the WHO data stating that half of the children in the world breathe air contaminated by tobacco smoke.
It seems that in Spain there was also a decrease in income from childhood asthma after one year of validity of our Anti-Tobacco Law. And if the fact that children are not exposed to tobacco smoke results in their health, we also read yesterday in Babies and More, which as a positive effect has shown that in Belgium there are fewer premature deliveries after a law similar to those mentioned .
In the words of Dr. Millet of the School of Public Health at Imperial College London: 'There is already evidence that the elimination of tobacco use in public places has resulted in significant health benefits in the population, and this study shows that these benefits include reducing hospital admissions for childhood asthma'.
This effect had already been observed before in places like the United States and Scotland. Hopefully these bans serve to increase awareness about the effects of exposure to tobacco smoke on children. It would also be necessary that does not smoke in front of them either inside the home, since - as we already explained here - toxic tobacco compounds are not eliminated by ventilating the rooms.
The work was recently published in Pediatrics and its dissemination should serve to protect the health of the little ones.
