Smoking bans reduce heart attacks

Indoor smoking bans have reduced heart attacks in smokers and non-smokers, according to US research.
Earlier this week Britain’s MPs voted to end the display of tobacco in shops and ban its sale from vending machines. This new study is another blow to big tobacco.
The report, from the Institute of Medicine for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, provides the best evidence to date that banning smoking from workplaces, restaurants and bars can reduce cardiovascular-related health problems.
A panel of experts reviewed 11 studies of smoking bans in the United States, Canada and Europe. All showed reductions in heart attacks of between 6% and 47%.
The difference is partly down to methodology but also, says the report, the context of the ban. Factors such as the information provided on the ban, education and outreach efforts on the dangers of secondhand smoke, and support for smoking cessation programmes are difficult to separate from the impact of the ban itself.
This said, the panel noted the ‘remarkable consistency’ in the link between a ban and a reduction in heart attack. The 205-page report estimates that exposure to secondhand smoke could raise the risk of heart disease by 25-30%.Clear benefits to non-smokers
‘Secondhand smoke kills,’ said CDC director Dr. Thomas Frieden. ‘What this report shows is that smoke-free laws reduce heart attacks in nonsmokers. There is a causal relationship. Smoking bans decrease the rate of heart attacks.’
Not all US states have smoking bans. Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said: ‘In the United States, 27 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have enacted smoke-free laws that include restaurants and bars. The new report should spur the remaining 23 states to enact comprehensive laws that include all workplaces, restaurants and bars.’
Committee chairwoman Dr. Lynn Goldman of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore predicted the report would help inform political debate in US states where new bans are under consideration. ‘This really communicates the benefits for nonsmokers,’ she said. ‘Nonsmokers are at risk. It's always been an important point. Now we know it's not only in terms of cancer risk but cardiovascular disease risk.’
Dr. Elizabeth Ross of the American Heart Association, which strongly advocates smoking bans, said: ‘We obviously want to encourage smokers to quit. But we also want to promote public policies which ban smoking that would expose nonsmokers to the risk of heart-attack from second-hand smoke.’