Banning Smoking Reduces Heart Attacks

Today, 27 US states have banned smoking in restaurants and bars.  And most workplaces also ban smoking, forcing addicts to go outside if they want to indulge.  It’s now clear these efforts are producing health results.  The Institute of Medicine has just reported on second-hand smoke exposure and cardiovascular health.

A committee convened by the Institute reviewed 11 key studies showing decreased heart attacks after implementation of smoking bans.  Two of them analyzed hospitalization rates for nonsmokers, which found fewer heart attacks that could be attributed to a decrease in their second-hand smoke exposure.  The other 9 studies provided indirect evidence of a link between second-hand smoke exposure and heart attacks.

None of the studies included information on the duration of exposure before the ban, or the likely concentrations of smoke.  Without this data, the committee couldn’t whether acute exposure was triggering heart attacks, or chronic exposure was damaging the heart leading finally to a heart attack, or both.  And the magnitude of the reduced risk could not be determined – for instance, the reduction in hospitalization ranged from 6% to 47% in different reports. 

The report has been endorsed by the American Heart Association.  Smoking bans are clearly having a substantial effect on cardiovascular health, and they deserve to be implemented even more widely.