Evidence that smokefree laws have immediate health benefits keeps piling up, this time for COPD

Frank Dusemund and colleagues just published a paper in Tobacco Control reporting a 22.4% drop in hospitalizations for acute exacerbated chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Graubünden, Switzerland after it passed a strong comprehensive smokefree law.  This is a significantly larger drop than the 7.0% drop observed in the rest of Switzerland.
 
This drop is consistent with the 24% drop (95% CI 15% to 32%) in hospitalizations for respiratory conditions that we found in our 2012 meta-analysis of the effects of smoking restrictions on hospitalizations for heart attacks, strokes, and pulmonary conditions.
 
The list just keeps growing.
 
The economic argument, long trumpeted by the tobacco companies and their allies and front groups, has strongly become an argument for such laws.  Public health advocates should be making these arguments not only for smokefree laws, but for tobacco control in general.
 
Here is their abstract:

Significant reduction of AECOPD hospitalisations after implementation of a public smoking ban in Graubünden, Switzerland
 
Purpose Only a few studies have examined the effect of public smoking bans on respiratory conditions. These showed reduced admission rates for different respiratory diseases.
Objective The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of the public smoking ban implemented in Graubünden, Switzerland, on the incidence of acute hospital admissions for acute exacerbated chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD).
Methods We searched a database, including all nationwide hospitalisations in Switzerland, for AECOPD and analysed incidence rates before and after introduction of the smoking ban using Poisson regression and incidence rate ratios (IRRs).
Results After introduction of the smoking ban, we observed a significant 22.4% decrease in the incidence of AECOPD hospitalisations in Graubünden (IRR=0.78 (0.68 to 0.88), p Conclusions Our study supports the limited body of evidence demonstrating that a reduction of secondhand smoke by legislated bans on smoking is associated with reduced rates of admission to hospital for respiratory conditions, hereby shown for AECOPD, in addition to the meanwhile well-documented impact on cardiovascular disease.