Smoking bans cut risk of pre-term births

It is well known that smoking during pregnancy can stunt the growth of unborn babies and shorten gestationwhile second-hand smoke exposure can also affect births.   But little was known about the impact of smoking bans on pre-term birth rates.

Pre-term birth has been linked to various health issues and the researchers believe that these findings could have significant public health implications.

“Our study shows a consistent pattern of reduction in the risk of pre-term delivery with successive population interventions to restrict smoking. It supports the notion that smoking bans have public health benefits even from early life,” the study authors wrote.

A team of researchers, led by Tim Nawrot of Hasselt University in Belgium, investigated trends in preterm births (< 37 weeks gestation) in the a period before, during and after the introduction of smoke-free laws.

They looked at more than 600 000 babies delivered between 24 and 44 weeks of gestation born between 2002 and 2011 in Flanders – where smoking in public places and the workplace was banned in 2006. A year later, Belgium enforced a similar smoking ban in restaurants. As of 2010, Belgium’s smoke-free legislation also applied to bars serving food.

Although no consistent drop occurred in the number of babies born before 37 weeks’ gestation before the smoking bans, after Belgium’s smoke-free legislation was implemented pre-term births started to decline.

By January 2007, the risk of preterm birth dropped by 3.13 percent. This risk dropped another 2.65 percent following the ban on smoking in bars serving food in January 2010.

“Our study shows a consistent pattern of reduction in the risk of pre-term delivery with successive population interventions to restrict smoking,” the researchers wrote.

“It supports the notion that smoking bans have public health benefits, even from early life.”

Source: HealthDay News, Reuters Health

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  • healthe

    Health-e News is South Africa's dedicated health news service and home to OurHealth citizen journalism. Follow us on Twitter @HealtheNews

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