Hospitalization Rates For Heart, Respiratory Ailments Drop In Toronto Because Of Smoking Ban

Toronto registered a 39 percent decline in heart ailment hospitalizations and a 32 percent drop in confinements due to respiratory conditions. The city attributed the drop to a city-wide three-phased smoking ban Toronto imposed beginning 1999.


The study covered a decade – from 1996 to 2006 – which includes three years prior to the smoking prohibition. The capital city of Ontario banned in 1999 smoking in all work places, in 2001 at all restaurants and in 2004 at all bars.

The 39 percent and 32 percent slip in hospitalization were observed in 2004, three years after Toronto prohibited smoking inside restaurants. During that year, heart attacks also decreased by 17 percent.

Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences Fellow Dr. Alisa Naiman, one of the study’s authors, said aside from the smoking ban, other factors that contributed to the decline in hospital confinement for the two smoke-related ailments were the hike in tobacco taxes, new advertising rules on tobacco products, graphic warnings on the danger of lighting up and improvement in handling chronic ailments such as asthma and angina.

Naiman wrote, “Our results serve to expand the list of health outcomes that may be ameliorated by smoking bans. Further research is needed to establish the types of settings in which smoking bans are most effective. Our results lend legitimacy to efforts to further reduce public exposure to tobacco smoke.”

The study came out in the Tuesday edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.