Improving Health: State Smoking Bans Reduces Heart Attacks

Improving Health: State Smoking Bans Reduces Heart Attacks in General Healthcare

Today, it’s common knowledge that smoking tobacco is bad for your health. We know how addictive nicotine is. We know how smoking increases your chances of cancer, emphysema, heart disease, and other life-threatening conditions. These health risks are real, and affect millions of people worldwide.

But it’s not just the smokers who have to worry about smoke-related health problems. Non-smokers also face health risks from second-hand smoke, also known as passive smoke.

A research paper by Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco, found that second-hand smoke contained over 4,000 chemicals. These include 69 chemicals known to cause cancer, as well as lead, arsenic, benzene, and formaldehyde.

Medical researchers have shown that second-hand smoke can cause both lung cancer and heart disease in non-smokers. According to American Heart Association, the number of people killed by second-hand smoke is as high as 53,000 a year.

In the past few years, there has been a nationwide trend in the U.S. to ban smoking in public places — and it has shown positive results. In states and communities where smoking is prohibited in public places, such as restaurants and bars, the overall health of their residents has significantly improved. North Carolina, Tennessee, New Hampshire, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, and New York are among the states who have recently adopted anti-smoking laws in public places.

The American Journal of Public Health conducted a study measuring the effects of the smoking ban in New York State by reviewing the number of hospital admissions for heart attacks. The state law, called the Clean Indoor Air Act of 2003, "prohibited smoking in bars, restaurants, banquet halls and places where workers were paid tips or wages," reported the New York Times.

Researchers determined New York’s smoking ban drastically reduced hospital admissions for heart attacks. One year after the ban took effect there were nearly four thousand fewer admissions than expected — saving the state an estimated $56.3 million in health care costs.

The 2003 smoking ban in Pueblo, Colorado produced similar results. The rate of heart attack hospital admissions went down 27% in the first 18 months following the ban’s effective date, reported the American Heart Association. The study also pointed out neighboring cities and communities who did not impose smoking bans had no reduction in heart attack admissions.

Banning public smoking has positively affected people’s health around the world, as well. A study earlier this year in Scotland found hospital admissions for heart attacks went down 17% after a smoking ban was passed in March of 2006, according to BBC News.

From the Council on Cardiopulmonary and Critical Care:

"The American Heart Association’s Council on Cardiopulmonary and Critical Care has concluded that environmental tobacco smoke is a major preventable cause of cardiovascular disease and death."

These studies’ results have measured the real health benefits of banning smoking in public places. But non-smoking laws don’t just reduce the number of hospital admissions for heart attacks — they also lower total health care spending. Health officials have recognized smoking bans are an easy and cost-effective way to improve the public’s health, and help bring down health care costs at the same time.

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