Restricting smoking in Europe effective

HOSPITALET, Spain, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Anti-tobacco laws enacted in Europe have resulted in less smoking and less exposure to secondhand smoke, researchers in Spain say.

Study co-author Esteve Fernandez Munoz, head of the Smoking Control Unit of the Catalan Institute of Oncology, says the study confirmed the hypothesis that the greater the smoking restrictions, the lower the consumption and passive exposure to smoke.

The study involved 27 countries of the European Union and used data from the Eurobarometer survey on tobacco and the Tobacco Control Scale, which takes into account the main measures taken to control smoking at an international level.

"In countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta and Sweden, which score higher on the Tobacco Control Scale, or adopt the stricter controls on smoking, the consumption is 'relatively low,'" Munoz says in a statement. "However in the Czech Republic, Germany, Luxembourg, Greece and Austria, where there are fewer control measures, smoking is 'relatively high' -- more than 30 percent, as well as the exposure to smoke -- between 15 percent and 30 percent in the home and between 15 percent and 36 percent in the work place."

The findings are published in the journal Plos One.