Researchers found smoking ban saw heart attack rates plummet by 60%

A six-month public smoking ban saw heart attack rates plummet

The strict ban imposed in Helena, Montana, outlawed smoking in public places from June 5 last year.

It was suspended six months later following a legal challenge. But while the ban was in force, researchers used the opportunity to investigate the effect of such policies on public health.

The study focused on St Peter's Community Hospital, which serves almost all heart patients in the community of 66,000 people.

Researchers compared the number of heart attack patients admitted from the Helena area with the number from outside. They also compared records for the period of the smoking ban with records from four years earlier.

During an average six month period, the number of heart attack hospital admissions for people living or working in Helena is just under seven per month.

But during the six months of the smoking ban, the number of admissions dropped to fewer than four a month a fall of nearly 60%.

Over this period there was no significant change in the number of admissions from outside the Helena area.

Professor Stanton Glantz, from the University of California at San Francisco, who provided the study's statistical analysis, said: "This striking finding suggests that protecting people from the toxins in second-hand smoke not only make life more pleasant, it immediately starts saving lives.

"This work substantially raises the stakes in debates over enacting and protecting smoke-free ordinances."

The study is the first to provide empirical evidence that smoke-free policies not only protect against the long term dangers of passive smoking but rapidly prevent heart attacks.

The findings were reported yesterday at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Chicago.

Past studies have shown that passive smoking can affect the heart in a matter of minutes. The St Peter's Community Hospital researchers attributed much of the observed decline in heart attacks to near elimination of the harmful effects of passive smoking.