29 Oct Huge study shows that smoking bans improve public health

The incredible amount of damage that smoking can do to people’s bodies is a topic I’ve written about often.
Within the last two decades lawmakers have taken the greatest steps ever to control smoking and limit second-hand smoke by legislating many types of public bans.
According to one of the biggest studies ever done on smoking legislation laws, which was published this week in Circulation, these types of bans can result in incredibly dramatic improvements in the general public‘s health. The analysis included 45 studies analyzing 33 laws in the U.S., as well as Germany and other countries in Europe.
Consider some of these findings from the data:
* Heart attack hospitalizations dropped an average of 15 percent after communities passed laws banning smoking in areas such as restaurants, bars and workplaces.
* Stroke hospitalizations fell 16 percent, while hospitalizations for respiratory disease fell 24.
* The more comprehensive the law, the greater the impact, too.
Examples were cited in which health improved greatly in one town in Minnesota in which laws were expanded from just limiting smoking in restaurants, which had little effect, to ban the activity in all workplaces, including bars.
Statistics show that the number of smoke-free homes is rising, which is a great thing to see. Perhaps with all the public bans, people think, “Well, I really should just quit.”
It’s great to see that smoking bans are working. Now that some of the best data to date has been put together it should go a long way toward continuing to douse the smoking habit.

At Home Fitness consultant Aaron Dorksen’s blog deals with a variety of fitness topics, ranging from workout tips, motivational ideas and feature stories on how exercise impacts people’s lives. E-mail him with comments, questions or ideas for future blogs at aaron@athomefitness.com