You really cannot argue with the facts. Asthma hospital admissions
involving children have fallen significantly in England and Wales since the
introduction of the smoking ban in public places. I have to put my hands up and
say that I had argued on these pages that this was unlikely to happen as most of
the second hand smoke to which children were traditionally exposed was in the
home and of course this was one area not covered by the smoking ban.
The figures from the NHS are clear however: there was a drop
in child asthma admissions of around 12% in the first year from 2007 when the
ban was introduced and further year on year falls of around 3 % have been
recorded in the two subsequent years following the initial impressive fall of
12%. This should be seen against a backdrop of rising admissions in the years
before the smoking ban was introduced.
Passive smoking does not just trigger asthma attacks; there
is evidence that the inhalation of second hand smoke can actually cause the
condition to develop in the first place. Regardless of whether or not you agree
with a smoking ban on political grounds, the health-related case is incontrovertible.
Children should not be exposed to passive smoking and responsible parents would
ensure that was the case in the home anyway. But with the smoking ban in place,
parents can be sure that their children are not inhaling second hand smoke in
shopping centres and other public places.
There
is definitely a correlation between the smoking ban introduction and the drop
in hospital admissions but I am not sure how it is possible to demonstrate
causality. However, given the established relationship between smoking and
asthma, I think that it is a reasonable hypothesis and let’s face it, we are
not going back to smoking in public places in any case so any argument about
cause and effect is purely academic.