Smoking ban’s good side effects
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A Colorado city ban on smoking at workplaces and in public buildings may account for a steep decline in heart attacks.
In the 18 months after a no-smoking ordinance took effect in Pueblo in 2003, hospital admissions for heart attacks for city residents dropped 27%, according to the study led by Dr. Carl Bartecchi, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver.
“Heart attack hospitalizations did not change significantly for residents of surrounding Pueblo County or in the comparison city of Colorado Springs, neither of which have non-smoking ordinances,” said the American Heart Assn., which published the study online Sept. 25 ahead of print in its journal Circulation.
The association said the researchers had taken into account other variables such as air pollution and community-wide changes in preventive care.
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