Cigarette smoke is one of the main causes of childhood asthma. That’s the most natural interpretation of a study that found an 18 percent drop in hospitalizations in the three years after 2007 when England’s smoking ban went into effect.
Smoking bans are only partially effective, so this suggests that the contribution of cigarettes to cases of severe asthma in children is well over 18 percent, probably more than 25 percent.
This study adds to many others of recent years, focused on various diseases and symptoms, that suggest that cigarette smoking has a profound short-term effect on everyone exposed to it. Ideally, no one should smoke, but it is especially important, we now know, not to smoke when there are other people nearby or in buildings or cars shared with others.
