Bar workers show health benefits after smoking banned

New evidence that indoor smoking bans yield significant health benefits:

The non-smoking workers participating in the study filled in questionnaires about their lung symptoms, took lung function tests and gave blood samples.

Before the ban, nearly 80 per cent — 61 people — reported respiratory symptoms such as wheezing, shortness of breath, coughing and phlegm or sensory symptoms such as red eyes and a runny nose.

One month after the ban went into effect, the number reporting such symptoms dropped by about a third, to 41 people...

...After two months of a smoke-free policy, about 47 per cent of participants reported symptoms, down 32 percentage points from when the study began.