Hospital admissions for a heart attack were cut considerably in the city of Pueblo, Colorado, after smoking has been prohibited, according to a new study published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

UVa Professor of Internal Medicine Dr. Chris Rembold commented on the findings: "It's absolutely the most important thing you can do to prevent the number one killer of Americans, which is heart attack [and] stroke."

For the study, researchers looked at hospital admissions for heart attacks in Pueblo in the 18 months before the smoking ban took effect and less than three years after implementation. Over this period of time, hospital admissions for heart attacks plunged 41 percent, from 399 to 237 admissions.

Terry Pechacek of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the study points out to the fact that secondhand smoke, known as environmental tobacco smoke, may be an under-recognized cause of heart attack deaths that occur in this country.

Smokers should take into account that they don’t just hurt themselves, but also the others. Of the 438,000 U.S. people tobacco kills a year, 38,000 are non-smokers who just inhale tobacco smoke from the others.

The World Health Organization said that tobacco users killed 100 million people around the world in the previous century and cautioned that in the 21st century it could kill one billion people worldwide.