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Colorado report could have implications for Burbank smokers. Doctors say smoking ban could curb heart disease.
Jump to full article: Burbank (CA) Leader, 2009-01-11
Author: Zain Shauk
Intro: Although no concrete figures are available for changes in heart attack admissions in Burbank, where police have been enforcing an anti-smoking law since August 2007, the findings could predict added health benefits for local residents, said David Sato, a cardiologist at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center.
"It doesn't surprise me that there's improvement, but the magnitude of the improvement is, I think, quite remarkable," said Sato, adding that the results reinforce the connection between secondhand smoke and heart disease, which could be reduced locally because of recent laws.
Burbank's law forbids smoking in its downtown and within 20 feet of public buildings, parks and the city's Chandler Bikeway.
The Glendale City Council passed its own anti-smoking ordinance in November, banning smoking on public property, including parks, and at publicly accessible private property like shopping malls, service lines and parking lots. . . .
California law, like the law enacted in Pueblo, already bans smoking in most workplaces, restaurants and bars.
Since local laws are more comprehensive than those in Pueblo, the local health benefits could be even greater than those found in the Pueblo study, but it would not be easy to track results here, experts said.
"All the heart attacks would go to one of two hospitals [in Pueblo]," Nevin-Woods said of the city, which is geographically isolated from other nearby towns. "It couldn't be done in the Los Angeles area
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