Toronto smoking ban lessens hospital admissions

By Mike Deibert

TORONTO—The hospital admission rates for patients with heart and respiratory problems dropped significantly in Toronto after the city made smoking in bars and restaurants illegal, according to the results of a 10-year study published last month in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

The data was gathered by researchers with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, which considered the effects of anti-smoking legislation on a number of cardiovascular and respiratory conditions related to smoking. It focused on heart attacks, strokes and angina, as well as asthma, pneumonia, bronchitis and emphysema.

“Legislated bans on smoking are associated with reduced rates of admission to hospital, reinforcing the value of such bans for public health,” concluded the study.

“It confirms that public policy can make a difference,” the study’s lead author, Dr. Alisa Naiman, told the media.

The study looked at hospital admissions in Toronto three years before the first phase of the city’s smoking prohibition, and two years after the implementation of a total ban.

The ban started with workplaces and public buildings in 1999, restaurants in 2001 and bars in 2004.

The study took into account other factors that could have an effect on the population’s health, such as a continual decline in the number of people smoking and an increase in anti-tobacco campaigns.

Researchers compared Toronto’s data with numbers from two other municipalities where there were no anti-tobacco bylaws, Halton region outside of Toronto and Thunder Bay in nothern Ontario. In these places, hospital admissions for heart attacks increased by nearly 15 per cent after bans were in place in Toronto, while they dropped 17 per cent itn the latter city.

Hospitalization for heart conditions fell 39 per cent and for respiratory problems 32 per cent in Toronto, compared to much smaller drops of  3.4 per cent and 13.5 per cent in Halton and Thunder Bay.

The study did not look at the effects of second-hand smoke because it could not be determined if the patients with heart and breathing problems were smokers or non-smokers.

Not long after the city of Victoria, BC banned smoking in restaurants, there was a reduced need for cardiologists there, Dr. Richard Stanwick, chief medical health officer for the Vancouver Island Health Authority, told the Toronto Star.