Smoke gets in your eyes: the benefits of a ban?

[摘要] Passive smoking or second-hand smoking increases the risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) up to 30%. Recent evidence has emerged that second-hand smoke exposure is nearly as harmful as chronic active smoking. Even less than an hour's exposure to smoke might be enough to push someone already at risk of a heart attack over the edge. Every study so far reported on the effect of smoking bans has shown a lowering of hospital admissions or death from AMI. The results become more and more overwhelming. In February 2008 the French authorities announced a 15% decrease in emergency admissions for AMI just one year after the public ban on smoking came into effect. Similar results were reported from Italy when researchers in Rome found an 11.2% reduction of acute coronary events since a January 2005 smoking ban among patients below 65 years. Researchers from Ireland, where a public smoking ban was introduced in 2004, found a reduction of 11% in admissions with acute coronary events in the year following the ban, and this effect was sustained through the following year. The Scottish StopIt study, which monitored the effects of legislation introduced in March 2006, reported a 17% reduction in hospitalisations for acute coronary syndromes (ACS), as compared with a 4% reduction in England where no such legislation was in place at the time, over a ten-month study period.

[学科分类] 心脏病和心血管学