Tobacco.org

• Public smoking ban slashes heart attacks 

A six-month ban on smoking in all public places slashed the number of heart attacks in a US town by almost a half, a new study has revealed.

The researchers attribute the dramatic drop to the "near elimination" of harmful effects of "second-hand" smoke - passive smoking. A smoke-free environment also encourages smokers to reduce smoking or quit altogether, the team adds.

Statistician Stanton Glantz, at the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues studied diagnoses of heart attacks in the town of Helena, Montana, where the ban was imposed.

"This striking finding suggests that protecting people from toxins in second-hand smoke not only makes life more pleasant, it immediately starts saving lives," Glantz says. The researchers claim the study is the first to show that smoke-free policies rapidly reduce heart attacks, as well as having long-term benefits.

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