New study shows smokefree law followed by fewer pregnancy complications

Daniel Mackay, Scott Nelson, Sally Haw and Jill Pell just published a very nice paper that looked at the effect of the Scottish smokefree law on complications of pregnancy (small for gestational age, preterm delivery and spontaneous preterm labor, among other outcomes).  They found a 5-12% drop in these conditions for women who got pregnant beginning shortly before the law too effect. This is not only another high-quality study demonstrating large and clinically meaningful benefits of smokefree laws in terms of health, but also shows that the real economic effect  of smokefree laws is to substantially reduce medical costs. The full paper is available for free at www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001175 Check it out.