UCL in the News: Smoking ban 'to save many lives'

A survey suggests more than 400,000 people quit smoking as a result of the smoking ban. …

A survey of 32,000 people found that smoking fell by 5.5% in the nine months after the ban, compared with 1.6% in the previous nine months.

On the basis of this, it was estimated that in excess of 400,000 gave up as a direct result of the ban.

Professor Robert West, who carried out the research at the Health Behaviour Research Unit at UCL, said he had not expected such a dramatic impact.

"These figures show the largest fall in the number of smokers on record. The effect has been as large in all social groups - poor as well as rich." …