articles on smoking in public places::A smokefree environment also encourages smokers to reduce smoking or quit altogether, the team adds.
Statistician stanton glantz, at the university of california, san francisco, and colleagues studied diagnoses of heart attacks in the town of helena, montana, where the ban was imposed.
The researchers claim the study is the first to show that smokefree policies rapidly reduce heart attacks, as well as having longterm benefits.
The public certainly underestimates the impact of passive smoking on the heart.
During an average sixmonth period, heart attack admissions to the hospital had averaged just under seven per month.
But this fell to less than four a month during the smoking ban.
The study suggests that although secondhand smoke delivers only a small dose of harmful chemicals, it appears to have a very heavy impact on health.
The risk of lung cancer rises steadily with the amount of tobacco a person smokes, he notes, but the risk of heart attack shows a nonlinear relationship.
But these break down and lead to the production of blood clotting agents.
Sandford notes that many public smoking bans are becoming more common.
New york banned smoking from 30 march, and the republic of ireland will introduce a ban on smoking in the workplace including pubs and restaurants from january 2004.
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