There are several benefits that have taken place due to laws that ban smoking in workplaces and public settings. According to Scottish researchers, due to this law there has been a decrease in hospital admissions for childhood asthma.

It has been stated by researchers for long that children are especially vulnerable to asthma that is triggered by tobacco smoke.

Lead researcher Dr. Jill Pell, the Henry Mechan Professor of Public Health at the University of Glasgow said, “While other studies have looked at the effects of smoking bans on all ages, and have taken into account on-the-job exposure, ours is the first study to have looked at a subgroup of the population, children, who do not have occupational exposure."

In Scotland, in March of 2006, the Smoking, Health and Social Care Act was passed. The ban was applicable to workplaces and all enclosed public places.

From January 2000 through October 2009, all the hospital admissions for asthma among children under the age of 15 were identified by Pell and her colleagues.

A total of 21, 415 admissions for asthma were found by the investigators. It was noted that admissions were increasing, on average, by 5.2 percent per year before the smoking law passed.

These admissions reduced on an average of 18.2 per cent every year after the law passed.