�NHS Health Scotland, the national health improvement agency, has base a 17 per cent fall in admissions for heart attacks just one year afterward the smoke ban1 came into force play.
Undertaken by the University of Glasgow, this study is 1 of the most rich of its kind, and was commissioned as role of a national rating of the impact of Scotland's smokefree legislation. Published this calendar week in the New England Journal of Medicine, the results from a study of ball club Scottish hospitals2 demonstrate the positive impingement going smokefree can have on the health of the population.
The evaluation of Scotland's smokefree law found that after the legislation came into force there was:
� a 17 per penny reduction in heart tone-beginning admissions to nine Scottish hospitals. This compares with an annual reduction in Scottish admissions for ticker attack of 3 per cent per year in the ten before the ban
� an 86 per cent simplification in second hand smoke in bars
� a 39 per cent reduction in second hand smoke exposure in 11-year-olds and in adult non-smokers
� an increase in the proportion of homes with smoking restrictions
� no evidence of smoking shifting from public places into the home
� considerable public support for the legislation even among smokers, whose support increased in one case the legislation was in place
Professor Jill Pell, University of Glasgow world Health Organization conducted the study said: "Previous analyses of bit hospital admission data from the US and Italy have reported reductions in heart attacks following the introduction of smoking bans. However, our Scottish study, is the first to examine the impact of the legislation on smokers and non-smokers separately. We have been able to demonstrate that two-thirds of the ascertained reduction in heart blast has occurred in non-smokers and the results of the blood tests confirmed a reduction in exposure to second hand smoke among non-smokers. We believe that most of the step-down can be attributed to the innovation of the Scottish smoke ban."
Sally Haw, Principal Public Health Adviser at NHS Health Scotland, unified the research programme: "This evaluation of impact of smokefree legislation is the most comprehensive yet conducted and the findings have exceeded our greatest expectations. As well as the dramatic 17 per cent reduction in heart attacks, we plant clear grounds of: improvements in the respiratory health of prevention workers; reductions in second hand exposure in bar workers, and adults and children the general population; and changing sociocultural norms around smoking and the acceptability of exposing others to SHS.
"The findings from the Scottish study of heart attacks are of worldwide importance and the combined results from the evaluation provide a compelling case for other countries to follow through a comprehensive ban on smoking in public places as shortly as possible, thereby reduction the impairment caused by second-hand smoke. However, it is essential that smokefree legislation is set within the context of use of wider tobacco control activity as outlined in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control - an external treaty designed to reduce both the demand for and the supply of tobacco products. 3"
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Peter Donnelly aforesaid: "This raft of research demonstrates the significant populace health benefits that the smoking ban is already having in Scotland. It provides evidence that the legislation is improving the health of everyone in Scotland - including smokers, non-smokers, children and barworkers. One of the most important findings is the reduction in heart attacks. We believe that the smoking forbiddance was a large tributary factor to this drop and I am convinced that we will persist in to get a line the incontrovertible effects of the forbiddance in long time to come."
The publication of this study comes together with other good news internationally; Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates announced in New York last week a further $375 gazillion investment ($250 million from the Bloomberg Family Foundation and $125 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) in tobacco plant control activity in development countries4; patch China has made the forthcoming Olympics a smokefree event when it takes the world stage in August.
1. The Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Act came into force in Scotland on 26th March 2006 and prohibits smoking in virtually all enclosed public places including parallel bars restaurants and cafes.
2. The heart attempt admissions to the club study hospitals account for 63 per cent of all Scottish admissions for heart onset.
3. Link to WHO FCTC
4. Link to Bloomberg/Gates story
NHS Scotland
http://www.scot.nhs.uk
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