A few years ago it began to legislate in order to create public areas free of tobacco to safeguard the health of non-smokers and for smokers to rethink their habit, since tobacco is a risk factor for acute diseases and chronicles, some very serious.
Since then it was not known how this was affecting worldwide (a month ago we talked about what was happening in Belgium), for good, in the health of pregnant women and children and now, thanks to a recent study, we know What are the first benefits of banning tobacco in public places: less prematurity and less childhood asthma.
Study Data
To do the study, the researchers searched for studies (it is a meta-analysis) analyzing those in which smoking was taken into account in the workplace, public areas or both, observing the effect with the health of the small, focusing mainly on the prematurity rates, in the hospital admissions for asthma and in the low birth weight.
In total, they analyzed data from more than 2.5 million births and almost 250,000 asthma exacerbations. Five of the studies were conducted in North America and six were done in Europe.
Results found
When comparing data, they saw that the anti-tobacco law, with the creation of smoke-free areas and the restrictions we all know, has achieved that premature births have been reduced by 10.4%, which sounds a little, but which is very much, and that cases of asthma income have been reduced by 10.1%. When comparing the weight of newborns, in case the cases of low-term infants had decreased, no differences were observed, since the decrease was 1.7% But it is not considered significant.
Conclusion in this regard
Well, it's all said, I think. Science does nothing but do studies to find the reasons for more and more premature births, talking about breastfeeding, surgery for obesity, bad sleep, etc., since being born prematurely can be dangerous for the baby, it is hard for parents, who spend the first weeks, and sometimes months, between the hospital and home, or the hospital and work, and because, as we said a few days ago, premature babies generate a very high health expense. That something like controlling ambient smoke is enough to achieve reduce premature births by more than 10% He is already telling us that the environment in which we live affects our health in many ways.
So, given the benefits, it is clear that smoke-free spaces must continue to exist and that the fewer people smoke, the better for everyone.
