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Smokefree policies are working

Smokefree policies are reducing heart disease related to smoke exposure, the prevalence of smoking in adults and the exposure of both adults and children to secondhand smoke.

These and other findings are published in a special report of this month's the Lancet Oncology.

The report, by the International Agency for Cancer Research (IARC), also showed that smokefree policies do not decrease the business activity of the restaurant and bar industry.

The author said, "A reduction in the lung cancer burden is plausible, but relevant evidence will only become available in the future."

Dr John Pierce of the University of California and Dr Maria Lean from IARC's Tobacco and Cancer Team prepared the report in collaboration with scientists from around the world.

The working group comprehensively assessed peer-reviewed published work and accessible governmental reports on the effect of smokefree policies.

Strong evidence was found that smokefree workplaces decrease the prevalence of adult smoking; that smokefree policies decrease tobacco use in youths; that the introduction of smokefree legislation decreases heart disease morbidity; and that smoke-free home policies decrease smoking in youths."

The working group recommended that governments implement smokefree policies that conform to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

"Not only do these policies achieve their aim of protecting the health of non-smokers by decreasing exposure to secondhand smoke, they also have many effects on smoking behaviour. The authors pointed out that up to now, most research has been done in high resource countries."

Source: IOL, 2nd July 2008
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