Giving Compass' Take:

• Steve Inskeep, Rachel Martin, Shankar Vedantam discuss how researchers found the positive health effects of smoking bans on young children. 

• How can funders help dispel myths around health issues like smoking bans? 

• Learn how to find and fund scientific research. 

Steve Inskeep: In much of this country, restaurants, bars, and offices restrict smoking, of course, which is good for your health. But some economists have been asking if there is a downside.

Rachel Martin: How would there be a downside to this?

Shankar Vedantam: Well, one potential downside, Rachel, is by limiting smoking in the workplace - the question is - do you drive smokers to light up elsewhere, especially at home where they can expose kids to higher levels of smoke and smoking-related diseases? The Economist Kerry Anne McGeary and Dhaval Dave saw anecdotal evidence of this kind of displacement.

Rachel Martin: So how did they go about testing whether or not people who were displaced in the workplace were smoking more at home

Shankar Vedantam: Well, they used data that tracked when smoking bans were enacted in different parts of the country starting in the 1990s and matched the location and timing of those bands with health information from different places. Specifically, they looked at the birth weight of newborns and the prevalence of asthma among young children.

They found, to their relief, that the health outcomes of babies and children actually improved in places with comprehensive workplace smoking bans.

Read the full interview about smoking bans at NPR.