Smoking Bans Improve Health

Smoking bans are improving health according to a new report just out.

The recent report, just published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine took a close look at how the smoking ban in Ireland has effected health.

It is been just over two years now since Ireland brought a ban on smoking in pubs and restaurants into place. The Irish smoking ban looks to be a success.

The study found that that ban on smoking in Ireland has reduced pub air pollution by 83 percent and that agents that can cause cancer were reduced by as much as 80 percent.

One of the major reasons for bringing in the smoking ban in Ireland was the health risk posed to workers in pubs and restaurants. The study has now found the pub workers showed better lung functioning.

Around the time the smoking ban first became enforced groups campaigning for the rights of smokers said that the amount of cancer causing agents in second hand smoke was not very high.

In 2004 Ireland was the world's first country to completely ban smoking from public places. If Ireland, a cigarette loving country can implement a successful smoking ban than anywhere can.

Smoking bans are becoming more and more common around the world. Last year Scotland and Wales introduced smoking bans. A smoking ban in England will take place on July 1 and a ban in Northern Ireland will take place on April 30. Even France, a country, synonymous with smoking is introducing a smoking ban, though it is being eased into society. Earlier this year France banned smoking from public buildings, however it has delaying the banning of smoking in cafes for some months, putting the full ban in place by January 2008. Soon France too will be a smoke free country.

In the United States smoking bans have been in force in a number of locations for some time now, but many states have still not introduced the ban. To date there is no nationwide law that enforces a smoking ban.

The research into the effects of the Ireland smoking ban were carried out by the Research Institute for a Tobacco Free Society, located in Dublin. The study included 42 pubs in Dublin and 73 pub workers. Researches to readings of pub smoke exposure. Those working in the pubs each took a test to determine their lung functions prior to the ban. One year following the Ireland smoking ban the same pub workers took another test to check their lunch functions.

The lung functions of the pub workers showed a very large improvement.

Sources
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6559215.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_smoking_bans