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Reuters
Banning smoking in enclosed public places can lead to lower rates of preterm birth, according to Belgian researchers who say the findings point to health benefits of smoke-free laws even in very early life.
It is well known that smoking during pregnancy can stunt the growth of unborn babies and shorten gestation, and that second-hand smoke exposure can also effect births, but little was known about the impact of smoking bans on preterm birth rates.
So a team of researchers led by Tim Nawrot of Belgium's Hasselt University investigated trends in preterm births - before 37 weeks gestation - from 2002 to 2011 covering a period before, during and after the introduction of smoke-free laws.
They found the risk of preterm birth after the introduction of each phase of Belgium's smoking ban, which was implemented in three phases - in public places and most workplaces in January 2006, in restaurants in January 2007, and in bars serving food in January 2010.
No decreasing trend in preterm was evident in the years or months before the bans, the researchers said in their study in the British Medical Journal on Friday.
"Our study shows a consistent pattern of reduction in the risk of preterm delivery with successive population interventions to restrict smoking," the researchers wrote.
"It supports the notion that smoking bans have public health benefits even from early life."
Smoking causes lung cancer, often fatal, and other chronic respiratory diseases. It is also a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, the world's number one killers.
According to the World Health Organization, tobacco already kills around 6 million people a year worldwide, including more than 600,000 non-smokers who die from exposure to second-hand smoke. By 2030, if current trends continue, it predicts tobacco could kill 8 million people a year.
Public health experts hope that as more and more countries in Europe and around the world adopt stricter legislation on smoking in public places, the health benefits will start to become evident fairly swiftly.
A study from England published last month found that the introduction of smoking bans there led to swift and dramatic falls in the number of children admitted to hospital suffering asthma attacks.
And research published in 2009 also found the ban on smoking in public places in England led to a swift and significant drop in the number of heart attacks, saving the national health service 8.4 million pounds ($13.1 million) in the first year.
The Belgian researchers analyzed 606,877 live, single-born babies delivered at between 24 and 44 weeks of gestation in Flanders from 2002 to 2011.
The results show a reduction in the risk of preterm births of 3.13 percent after January 2007, and a further reduction in the risk of 2.65 percent after January 2010.
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any woman who smokes while pregnant is just stupid and heartless. Very selfish, only caring about herself. And a murderer if her unborn baby was to die from it.
My mother was not stupid nor heartless.I was born in the 1950's and she smoked.She smoked while pregnant with all 5 kids.None of us were preemies and are all still in tip top condition in our 50's and 60's.Smoking is not the evil product it's been made out to be.Women have preemies who don't smoke.People get lung cancer who don't smoke.The medical society doesn't know what cause preemies or any other disease.They are grasping at straws to keep their grant money flowing.
Well, just to counter your experience; my mother smoked before, during and after my gestation and I was born, a week early with a pair of lungs that never functioned properly after my birth and may need to be replaced in the near future partly because of her smoking.
That is a statement borne out of pure ignorance!
BTW, I was born in 1946.
Smoking is not the evil product it's been made out to be.
Cleaning lady, do you really believe this or are you a smoker? Your statement might be right if it were not for the statistics. Over 400,000 people who die of lung cancer every year. Before you argue, yes, the majority of these victims smoke or live with smokers. Additionally, millions of people suffer from COPD and cardiovascular disease directly related to smoking.
Geez. I guess you don't have insurance, wear a seatbelt, get medical checkups, try to eat properly, have protected sex with monogamous partners, get vaccinated, exercise, try to sleep 6-8 hours a night, avoid dangerous places alone at night, lock your doors, follow the speed limit, clean your home, wash your hands, or get educated either.
Very convenient to begin with "BAN IN ENCLOSED SPACES" and then switch, mention it only specifically once, and then skew the implied meaning to "ACROSS THE BOARD BAN". Outdoor PUBLIC SPACES, such as Parks, need to "accommodate", not BAN smoking, with "Smoking Sections". The "theory" of secondhand smoke in open spaces, as an air pollutant is wrongly and wrongfully (as in penalizing) singling out Smokers, as Individuals, and putting accountability and responsibility and penalty on them for transient air pollution, no different in it's logistical happenstance and transience as that of automobile exhaust. (and actually far far less in prolonged and sustained rate of occurance) Smoking a cigarette out in Public is a LEGAL Activity and needs to be ACCOMMODATED, NOT BANNED. Any BAN INSTEAD OF ACCOMMODATION is a discriminatorily punitive UNconstitutional Prior Restraint placed directly on the "select" Individual. period
It's not the same as Alcohol or Marijuana (as a substance abuse problem needing restricting and BANNING) because smoking a cigarette DOES NOT cause immediate impairment to immediate function. Not to in any way to say that it's not an addiction.
Since it comes from another Country, did Bloomberg pay for this Study? (or the interpretive skewing, I should say:)
Why?
I smoked for 40 years and I apologize to everyone who had to breath the smoke I created. There is no Constitutional right to smoke, and there is COMPELLING evidence that any smoke, whether caused by automobiles, trucks, powerplants AND smokers causes health problems for those who also don't smoke.