CTV.ca News Staff

A new study suggests a ban on smoking in public spaces in Toronto, including in bars and restaurants, is leading to a lot fewer hospitalizations. 

It is probably safe to assume that the subsequent bans which occurred in Northshore Townships are having similarly successful effects.  Thanks to Ron & Jackie Jung for connecting ONN to this article.  With the “Northshore Teens – Contraband Tobacco” editorial ongoing, this brings up the issue of de-normalizing tobacco products, if they are not as socially acceptable, beginning tobacco use looses some of its appeal. 

The study, published by the Canadian Medical Association Journal, finds that since citywide anti-smoking laws were introduced, hospitalizations for
cardiovascular conditions and respiratory conditions dropped significantly.

The study noted:

• a 17.4 per cent drop in hospitalizations due to heart problems.
• a 39 per cent decrease in hospitalizations for cardiovascular events in general.
• a 33 per cent drop in admissions for respiratory conditions, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and bronchitis.

Toronto‘s smoking ban was initiated in three phases: the first, in October 1999, required all public places and workplaces to be smoke-free. The second, in June 2001, required restaurants and bowling halls to be smoke-free, except for designated smoking rooms. The final stage, brought in in June 2004, required all bars, pool halls, bingo halls, casinos and racetracks, except for designated rooms, to be smoke-free. A comprehensive Ontario-wide smoking ban then came into effect in May 2006. The study looked hospital admission rates in Toronto from January 1996 — three years before the first phase of the smoking ban — to March 2006, two years after the last phase was implemented. The authors, from Ontario’s Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, say they can’t prove the smoking ban caused these declines in hospitalizations. They also spot changes that seem to be linked to the smoking bans.

But they note that there wasn’t a decline in hospitalizations in general for the time period studied, or for conditions not influenced by secondhand smoke, such as appendicitis. That strengthens the argument that the elimination of smoking in restaurants led to the decline in hospitalizations for these conditions.

“Our findings are consistent with the evidence that exposure to second-hand smoke is detrimental to health and legitimize legislative efforts to further reduce exposure,” the researchers write.

They say more research should be carried out to determine in which public places smoking bans are most effective. 

Smoke-free Ontario – http://www.mhp.gov.on.ca/en/smoke-free/default.asp