International smoking bans, including
the one in Ireland, have led to sharp falls in the numbers of children going to
hospital with asthma attacks and the number of babies born before full term.
The review of 11 studies carried out in
North America and Europe, including a 2013 study in Ireland, published in the Lancet today, (view abstract here) shows that the numbers of both
fell by a tenth within 12 months of the bans being introduced.
Meanwhile, the number of children born
before full term who are smaller than they should be given the stage at which
they are born has declined by 5 per cent, said Dr Jasper Been of the Maastricht University Medical Centre.
An Irish study in 2012 found
the smoking rates of mothers fell by 12 per cent in the year after the smoking
ban was introduced a decade ago. It also reported that pre-term birth risks had fallen by a
quarter.
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