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GOOD AIR, GOOD HEALTH
Posted by:
Jose
()
Date: September 25, 2007 01:12PM Scottish Smoking Ban Leads to Huge Drop in Heart Attacks
By Marco Evers A new study provides surprising evidence of the effects of smoking bans: Heart attacks have dropped by 17 percent in Scotland since smoking was banned in public last year. ................. Many people in the United Kingdom have reacted incredulously to the surprising results, which make smoking bans appear to be the best and cheapest health measure since the invention of recreational sports. Some speculated that perhaps it was all to do with the weather, while the London Times recommended "healthy skepticism" in the face of the results. But for medical experts, the Scottish study is actually not that surprising. There are already several studies from other countries which have yielded very similar results: * The number of heart attacks in Ireland has fallen by about 11 percent since the smoking ban was introduced there in March 2004, Irish researchers announced at a cardiology congress in Vienna. * Following the smoking ban introduced in Italy in January 2005, the number of heart attack victims under 60 in the Piedmont region also declined by 11 percent. Previously, the number had been on the rise for years. * Residents of the city Pueblo in the US state of Colorado suffered 27 percent fewer heart attacks in the 18 months after a smoking ban was introduced in July 2003. * The number of heart attacks suffered in the town of Helena in the US state of Montana even declined by about 40 percent following a 2002 smoking ban. However when a judge legalized smoking again six months later, the number of heart attacks returned to previous levels. "The correlation between passive smoking and heart attacks is now excellently documented," says Tobias Raupach, the scientific director of an center for people who want to quit smoking at the University Medical Center Göttingen. The peculiar thing is that, both with passive and active smoking, a minimal change can already lead to a large effect. Much as with an avalanche, a small stimulus can lead to a cascade of events. From [www.spiegel.de] Cheers, J  Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.
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