Chief Exec Blog
19 February 2013
Prevention is always better than cure, says the old adage. Seems a truism for so many health issues and certainly chimes with a great deal of current Government policy. It’s, of course, never easy to prove that as a result of your intervention as an agency, or as an individual that you have prevented a poor or bad consequence occurring. I’ve devoted so many hours to to this tricky subject when addressing funders requirements for new projects !
The area of tobacco control is one where the prevention evidence is increasingly strong. Recent studies in England have shown that the introduction of the public smoking ban there led to a swift and significant falls in the number of children admitted to hospital with asthma attacks. Only last week , the BMJ published a report of a Belgian study that points to the health benefits of smoke free legislation in very early life – as banning smoking in enclosed public spaces can lead to lower rates of preterm birth. So, though we’ve known for a long time that smoking during pregnancy can damage the growth of the foetus and shorten gestation – we now have evidence of a reduction in the risk of preterm births following the introduction of smoking restrictions.
Smoking kills around 6 million people a year , worldwide according to the WHO. Prevention really is a no-brainer !