Hospital admissions due to smoking have fallen

There were 1,200 fewer hospital admissions for heart attacks in England after the smoking ban came into play in July 2007, a study suggests.

The 2.4% drop is thought to have saved the NHS over £8m, and researchers have said even a small reduction had “important public health benefits”.

The team from Bath, analysed English hospital admissions between 2002 and 2009, and took into account a variety of factors, which can influence heart attacks – from the weather to influenza rates.

The theory is that non-smokers’ exposure to smoke has the same effect on the heart as if they were light smokers, and can trigger acute coronary problems – meaning that at least some of the impact of a smoking ban should become apparent relatively quickly.

Studies have painted a mixed picture of the effects of such bans – with one from the US reporting a 40% drop in the number of hospital admissions for heart attacks, while research from Scotland reported a 17% decrease following a can in March 2006.

But the team of researchers from Bath University did not uncover such a large drop.

They said heart attack admissions had been falling in England in the run-up to the ban due to the fact that many establishments had become smoke-free in anticipation of the ban, making any subsequent decline far less dramatic.

But they also suggested that their study was the most rigorous to date and therefore less likely to inflate the impact.

Nonetheless, the fall recorded was an important one, and even greater benefits are likely to emerge in years to come according to Dr Anna Gilmore, director of the Tobacco Control Research Group.

“Given the large number of heart attacks in this country each year, even a relatively small reduction has important public health benefits, she added.

Professor John Britton of the Royal College of Physicians said the findings demonstrated “once again the importance of preventing passive smoking.

“We urge the government to take further steps to close the remaining loopholes in the existing smoking laws, and to act to prevent the continued exposure of children to passive smoking in the home.”

However, smoker’s rights campaigners said the findings should be treated with caution.

“The number of emergency heart attack admissions had been falling for several years, even before the smoke-free legislation, so what we are seeing is part of a trend that has nothing to do with the smoking ban, said Simon Clark, director of Forest.

“This study is designed to show the benefits of prohibition. What it doesn’t show is the misery that has been heaped on hundreds of thousands of people by an unnecessarily harsh and divisive piece of legislation.”