fixaging

If you are a smoker then stopping smoking is one way to increase how long you will live. However even if you are not a smoker then your life span can still be impacted from this via second hand smoke. So countries are now identifying that by imposing restrictions on smoking this impact can be lessened. This has the knock on effect of reducing smoking. Last year in March 2006, Scotland banned smoking in public places, and evidence has been found of the effect, nine hospitals stated that there was a 17% year-on-year drop in heart attack admissions since the Scottish smoking ban was put in place. These finding have been validated before; in the first 18 months after the town of Pueblo, Colorado enacted a smoking ban in 2003, hospital admissions for heart attacks dropped by 27%, while in neighbouring towns without smoking bans there was no change. The Scottish data was part of key findings from Professor Jill Pell who headed the research team. Other findings are that younger children are being less exposed to second hand smoke. Many other countries ( or regions ) are coming around to the idea of a smoking ban in public places; California (1998), Ireland (2004), Bhutan (2005), UK (2006-2007), Denmark(2007), France (2008), Netherlands (2008), Romania (2008).

Although all this would suggest that in future years life expectancies will be trending upwards, all other things being equal, cigarette sales are still going up in some countries which have enacted the smoking ban. This does not necessarily mean that more people are smoking, it could mean that less people are buying illegal cigarettes, it could mean that smokers are smoking more cigarettes, while the number of smokers is still declining. The research above showing that younger children are being exposed less to smoke would suggest that the quantity of people are less, although it could also mean that because of all the increased advertising and awareness that parents are taking more care not to smoke around their children. Alternatively it could be that the smoking ban has made smoking more appealing as it is seen to be rebellious to smoke.

The net effect of this move for the countries concerned will probably be positive, however on a personal level, if you do not smoke it will definitely be as you will not have to breath in other peoples smoke (as long as you live in a smoking ban region).

Tags: Life expectancy //