Smoking Ban Reduces Heart Attacks

by Aimee Amodio | More from this Blogger

05 Jan 2009 06:53 PM

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control took a look at the relationship between public smoking bans and heart attack rates -- and found some encouraging news.

On July 1, 2003, Pueblo, Colorado banned smoking in workplaces. Over the three years following the ban, the rate of people hospitalized for heart attacks dropped more than forty percent. Pretty amazing, huh? Areas around Pueblo that had no such smoking ban saw little change in their heart attack rates. This leads CDC researchers to believe that the ban was directly responsible for the change.

The bad news? Secondhand smoke may be a bigger threat to heart health than we realized. Researchers are looking at the CDC study and other studies as proof that smoke-free legislation is a quick and easy way to reduce heart attacks.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, secondhand smoke may play a part in some 46,000 heart disease deaths and three thousand lung disease deaths annually. Something relatively simple -- like banning smoking in restaurants and other businesses -- could potentially protect a lot of people.

People across the nation have had mixed reactions to smoking bans. For me personally, I think it's great to be able to go to restaurants and clubs and not have to come home reeking of smoke. I'm allergic to cigarette smoke, and that's kept me home a lot of nights when I would have liked to go out with friends. But I also understand that smokers are inconvenienced by having to step outside in all weather in order to smoke... and business owners fear losing business if clients can't enjoy themselves.

Secondhand smoke is dangerous to clients and employees of venues that allow smoking -- so it isn't just the smokers choosing to harm themselves. And yes, employees did willingly take jobs there, but given the choice between a hazardous-to-your-health job and no job at all, I'd have to take the hazardous job, too.

I'm on the side of the public smoking bans myself... not in order to single out smokers or make them miserable, but to help make the world a healthier place. I'd rather have fewer heart attacks all around!

Learn more about Aimee Amodio

Aimee is a fiction writer... dog lover... music lover...

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