Does banning smoking in public places improve public health? Yes,
a new study finds, and the effects are large and long-lasting.
A municipal smoke-free ordinance took effect in Pueblo, Colorado,
in 2003, and researchers tracked the incidence of heart attacks,
comparing rates in the city with those in neighboring communities
where there were no smoking bans. Their analysis appears in the Jan.
2 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
In the 18 months preceding the ban, rates in the city and
surrounding areas were identical. But in the year and a half after
the new law took effect, hospitalizations for heart attack decreased
27 percent in the city, while remaining unchanged in the two
neighboring communities.Through June 2006, rates in the city were 41
percent lower than before the ordinance was passed, and still
unchanged in the surrounding area.
Dr. Christine Nevin-Woods, the executive director of the Pueblo
City-County Health Department, which conducted the research,
acknowledged that the study did not control for smoking. Still, she
called the decrease in the rates significant.
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