Smoking ban cut hospital admissions

TORONTO, April 13 (UPI) -- Toronto's ban on smoking in restaurants led to a major decline in heart and lung hospital admissions, a Canadian medical research study said Tuesday.

Smoking in restaurants was banned by the city in 2001. The research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal said within three years, hospitalizations for heart conditions fell 39 percent and 32 percent for respiratory conditions, the Globe and Mail reported.

Using data from two other regions in Ontario that didn't have smoking bans, the rate of admissions for heart attacks jumped by almost 15 percent during the same time period, the report said.

One of the study's authors, Dr. Alisa Naiman, of the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, wrote there were other factors likely associated with the decline in Toronto such as graphic warnings on cigarette packaging, but the law's impact was evident.

"Healthy public policy has to be based on evidence and studies like this one validate the use of legislation," Naiman wrote.