CHICAGO (Reuters) – Smoking bans in public places can significantly reduce the number of heart attacks, two US research teams reported yesterday.
One team found smoking bans in the United States, Canada and Europe had an immediate effect that increased over time, cutting heart attacks by 17 percent after the first year and as much as 36 percent after three years, they reported in the journal Circulation.
A second team found such bans reduced the annual heart attack rate by 26 percent. Their report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology estimates a nationwide ban in the United States could prevent as many as 154,000 heart attacks each year.
Both research teams said the findings support the adoption of widespread bans on smoking in enclosed public places to prevent heart attacks and improve public health.
“Public smoking bans seem to be tremendously effective in reducing heart attack and, theoretically, might also help to prevent lung cancer and emphysema, diseases that develop much more slowly than heart attacks,” said Dr. David Meyers of the University of Kansas School of Medicine, who led the study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
“Even breathing in low doses of cigarette smoke can increase one’s risk of heart attack,” he said.
Smoking bans have been enacted in countries all over the world. In the United States, 32 states ban smoking in public places and workplaces, and many cities and other localities do, too.
Meyers and colleagues analyzed data from 10 studies on smoking bans in the United States, Canada and Europe to compare rates of heart attacks before and after public smoking bans.
They found women and younger people were most likely to benefit, possibly because they often work in or frequent bars and restaurants where smoking is common, Meyers said.
