A top child health organisation has called for new laws to be introduced that bans smoking in cars. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health recently said regulations to outlaw this habit could improve the wellness of children, especially those with asthma.
On the decrease
Doctor lolo Doull from the organisation looked at the rates of children who were hospitalised because of asthma attacks. The condition can lead to narrowing of our tubes in our lungs due to a range of triggers. As well as muscles making airways smaller, tubes can become inflamed and also blocked with mucus. When all of these factors combine then our breathing can become severally disrupted resulting in an asthma attack. Second-hand smoke can be a trigger for lots of us who suffer from the breathing problem. In order to see how the smoking ban in some public places and workplaces has affected public health, the NHS compiled figures to see if hospitalisations involving asthma attacks in children declined with the introduction of the ban. The review shows that in the three years after the ban, hospitalisations fell by 6,802. Admissions were rising prior to the law being changed.
What next?
Scientists working on the study believe that hospital admissions decreased in children thanks to the smoking ban. Experts explain that regulations outlawing the habit in public may have motivated people to smoke less generally and reduce how much smoke children are exposed too. This view is supported by Dr Doull who also highlights aspects of the law that may not go far enough to protect our children from passive smoking. In particular, he would like to see in-car smoking banned. Up to one in 11 children in the UK suffer from asthma, which can be controlled in lots of cases with medication and avoiding triggers. We can get help from our local clinics if we’re interested in giving up smoking.
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