A study by the British Medical Journal done on 600,000 births found three successive drops in babies born before 37 weeks – each occurring after a phase of a public smoking ban was introduced. Such trend was not found before the ban was introduced, which is why this is quite interesting. In addition, this is the second study to show such trends, which is further supporting that  smoking bans can affect health from a very early age.

This is particularly important because it is already well established that smoking leads to reduced birth weight and an increased risk of premature birth.

For more details, read the full article and corresponding links here