Results from the longest running of its kind have show additional evidence linking smoking bans to a decrease in heart attacks. This study, based on the July 1, 2003 smoking ban in Pueblo, Colorado showed a 41% reduction in heart attack hospitalizations in the three years following the city-wide ban of workplace smoking.
The study reviewed hospital admissions for heart attacks in Pueblo and hospital admissions for heart attacks for two additional nearby areas where no such bans were effected (the area of Pueblo County outside the city, and El Paso County) over three years following the enactment of the smoking ban.
While no significant changes were found in the two areas without a smoking ban, in Pueblo, findings revealed that 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.
The study suggests that secondhand smoke may be a substantial and under-recognized cause of heart attack deaths, according to
Terry Pechacek of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of the authors of the study.
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