BALTIMORE, Oct 16, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Smoking bans are effective and even
relatively brief exposures to secondhand smoke may lead to a heart attack, U.S.
researchers say.
A report by a committee of the Institute of Medicine confirms there is
sufficient evidence that breathing secondhand smoke boosts non-smokers' risk for
heart problems.
"It's clear that smoking bans work," Lynn Goldman of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health in Baltimore said in a statement. "Bans reduce the risks
of heart attack in non-smokers as well as smokers."
The committee conducted a comprehensive review of published and unpublished data
and testimony on the relationship between secondhand smoke and short-term and
long-term heart problems.
The studies calculated that reductions in the incidence of heart attacks range
from 6 percent to 47 percent. Given the variations in how the studies were
conducted and what they measured, the committee says it could not determine more
precisely how great the effect is.
Data on particulate matter in smoke from other pollution sources suggest that a
relatively brief exposure to such substances can initiate a heart attack and
particulate matter is a major component of secondhand smoke, the researchers
say.
The report is at: http://www.nap.edu.
URL: www.upi.com
Copyright 2009 by United Press International