A study released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that hospital admissions for a heart attack reduced drastically in the city of Pueblo, Colorado, after a municipal ban on smoking.  

 

The study, the longest running of its kind, showed the rate of hospitalized cases dropped 41 percent in the three years after the ban of workplace smoking in Pueblo, Colo., took effect. No such drop was registered in two neighboring areas, and researchers believe it’s a clear sign the ban was responsible.

 

Terry Pechacek of the CDC, one of the study’s authors, also suggests that secondhand smoke may be a terrible and under-recognized cause of heart attack deaths in this country. A previous study of the CDC revealed that among the 438,000 people tobacco kills a year, about 50,000 are non-smokers who just inhale tobacco smoke from the others. Of these, 46,000 die of heart disease while 3,000 die of lung cancer. If governments fail to adopt more aggressive measures to combat smoking addiction, in the next century tobacco will kill one billion people worldwide.

 

Smoking bans are intended not only to cut smoking rates but also to reduce secondhand tobacco smoke. Some experts believe that reducing exposure to smoke can quickly cut the risk of clothing and the CDC study appears to be a proof of that. In fact, the CDC says long-term exposure to secondhand smoke is associated with a 25- percent to 30-percent increased risk of heart disease in adult non-smokers.

 

“This study is very dramatic. This is now the ninth study, so it is clear that smoke-free laws are one of the most effective and cost-effective to reduce heart attacks,” said Dr. Michael Thun, a researcher with the American Cancer Society who was not involved in the study.

 

For the study, researchers reviewed hospital admissions for heart attacks in Pueblo. Then, they looked at the same data for two nearby areas that did not have bans- the area of Pueblo County outside the city and for El Paso County.

 

In Pueblo, the rate of heart attacks dropped from 257 per 100,000 people before the ban to 152 per 100,000 in the three years afterward. There were no significant changes in the two other areas.

 

“Previous studies have found that secondhand smoke exposure decreases substantially among nonsmoking employees of restaurants and bars and among nonsmoking adults in the general public” in the wake of smoking bans, the report said.

 

The report is another proof that quitting smoking benefits smokers as well as nonsmokers. Doctors believe that a smoker’s blood pressure and pulse rate drop to normal within 20 minutes of his last cigarette. Breathing becomes easier within 3 days. Circulation improves, walking becomes easier, and lung function increases up to 30 percent within 2-3 months. Also, risk of coronary disease will be cut in half within a year.