England’s ban on smoking in cars carrying children led to a 72% relative reduction in the percentage of children self-reporting exposure to tobacco smoke in cars.
“Given children’s known vulnerability to secondhand smoke, reductions in exposure will probably result in improved health,” wrote Anthony A. Laverty, PhD, of Imperial College London and coauthors. Their findings were published in Thorax.
To determine the impact of a 2015 ban on smoking in cars carrying children in England and a 2016 ban in Scotland, the researchers analyzed survey data from 2012, 2014, and 2016 for each of the two countries. In England, children aged 13-15 years were asked, “In the past year, how often were you in a car with somebody smoking?” In Scotland, they were asked, “Are you regularly exposed to other people’s tobacco smoke in any of these places?” with cars/vehicles being one of the options.
Overall, 15,318 responses were received in England and 822 were received in Scotland. In England, self-reported regular exposure to smoke in cars was 6% in 2012, 6% in 2014 and 2% in 2016. In Scotland, it was 3% in 2012, 2% in 2014 and 1% in 2016. From 2014-2016 in England, implementation of the smoke-free policy was associated with a 4% absolute reduction – or a 72% relative reduction – in the percentage of children self-reporting exposure.
The authors acknowledged their study’s limitations, including exposure being based on self-reporting alone and the analyses using only three data points. “Future analyses with more data are recommended,” they wrote, “and may provide discrepant results.”
The study was funded by the National Institute for Health Research School for Public Health Research. One author was funded by the Medical Research Council on a clinician scientist fellowship. The others reported no potential conflicts of interest.
SOURCE: Laverty AA et al. Thorax. 2020 Jan 27. doi: 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2019-213998.