LONDON — Introducing laws that ban smoking in enclosed public places can lead to swift and dramatic falls in the number of children admitted to hospitals suffering from asthma attacks, according to a study published yesterday.
Researchers at Imperial College London found a 12.3 percent drop in admissions for childhood asthma in the first year after such laws took effect in England in July 2007.
Before the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces was implemented, hospital admissions for children suffering severe asthma attacks were rising by 2.2 percent a year, peaking at 26,969 in 2006 and 2007, the researchers found.
That trend reversed immediately after the British law took effect, leading to 6,802 fewer hospital admissions for childhood-asthma emergencies in the first three years, the Imperial College team wrote in the journal Pediatrics.