[C-U Smokefree] NYTimes.com Article: Of Smoking Bans and Heart Attacks

[Rubina Khan]

Good editorial.

Rubina Khan
Market Research Analyst
C-U Mass Transit District
1101 E. University Ave.
Urbana, IL  61802
 
ph 217.384.8188               fx 217.384.8215
rkhan at cumtd.com             www.cumtd.com
 
If one in ten Americans used public transportation regularly, the U.S.
reliance on foriegn oil could be cut by more than 40% -- the amount we
import from Saudia Arabia each year. 
  
~American Public Transportation Association 
http://www.apta.com 
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Of Smoking Bans and Heart Attacks

April 27, 2004
 

A six-month ban on smoking in public places and workplaces
in Helena, Mont., appears to have sharply reduced the
number of heart attacks. For the six months that the ban
was in effect in 2002, there were only 24 heart attack
admissions for Helena residents at the hospital serving all
cardiac patients in the area. That was a 40 percent
reduction from the 40 heart attacks recorded for the same
six-month period, on average, in the four years before the
ban and in the year after it. There was no similar drop for
people living outside Helena, where the ban was not in
effect. 

Helena's smoking ban was halted after a court challenge,
but the lessons learned from this brief episode add
credence to campaigns to limit secondhand smoke around the
globe. While far from a definitive study, it does provide
new evidence that inhaling secondhand smoke can cause
immediate health problems, not just a long-term risk of
disease. 

The study gains weight from being published in the
prestigious British Medical Journal. In a commentary there,
top experts at the United States Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention warn that "all patients at increased
risk of coronary heart disease or with known coronary
artery disease should be advised to avoid all indoor
environments that permit smoking." Family members are
advised not to smoke in the homes of such patients or in
vehicles with them. 

Although it may seem surprising that a smoking ban can have
such a large impact so quickly, experts at the Centers for
Disease Control cite evidence from other studies that small
doses of tobacco smoke, like those received from secondhand
smoke or from smoking one or two cigarettes a day, can
rapidly increase the risk of a heart attack by leading to
the formation of blood clots that obstruct blood flow to
the heart. 

While it remains possible that some factor other than the
ban was at work in reducing heart attacks, the Helena
experience should certainly encourage the politicians who
have been fighting to keep public places free of cigarette
smoke. 

If the Montana results can be replicated by larger studies
elsewhere, the findings could provide a new impetus for
bans that could prevent thousands of heart attacks each
year around the world. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/27/opinion/27TUE4.html?ex=1084077693&ei=1
&en=5825122283d06e00


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