Firstmed Blog

Smokers in Ireland are lighting up less often in the home since the smoking ban was introduced in 2004, new research has revealed, which could lower their risk of erectile dysfunction.

According to a study part-funded by Cancer Research, the new smoke-free laws do not automatically put children’s health at risk by forcing adults to smoke at home.

Professor Gerard Hastings, director of the charity’s UK Centre for Tobacco Control at the University of Stirling and co-author of the study, said that the findings echo the experiences of other countries.

He said: “Given that smokers accept it is dangerous and unfair to expose strangers to the poisons in their cigarette smoke, it would be illogical for them to go home and expose their families to the same toxic chemicals.”

The research team also studied smokers’ drinking behaviour and found that smokers in post-ban Ireland consumed the same quantities as smokers in the UK.

Recent findings from Action on Smoking and Health and the British Medical Association showed that 120,000 men in their 30s and 40s in the UK are impotent as a direct consequence of smoking.