Surprise: Drop In Heart Attacks After Smoking Bans

Surprise, surprise! People aren’t dying as much since local law has been limiting their smoking.

American, Canadian, and European cities that have implemented smoking bans had an average of 17 percent fewer heart attacks in the first year. Each year after implementing smoking bans, smoke-free communities have an average 26 percent decline in heart attacks, compared with those areas that still allow smokers to light up in public places.

The findings, published independently by two research teams using similar data, are in the medical journals Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association and Journal of the American College of Cardiology.