Opinion Former Briefing: Smoking ban reduces heart attacks

Tuesday, 22, Sep 2009 12:00

Two independent reviews have concluded that the number of heart attacks has fallen sharply in countries enforcing the smoking ban in public areas. Findings published in Circulation and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggested a 26% fall in annual rates. This is much higher than the 10% fall originally forecast by the Department of Health earlier this month.

Royal College of Physicians

The Royal College of Physicians commented:

"This is fantastic news - it shows that public policy measures can be really effective in changing people's behaviours and saving lives."

Stroke Association

The Stroke Association commented:

“The long running campaign against smoking has saved thousands of lives and the latest research showing that the smoking ban is having such a big impact is a welcome sign that we can continue to reduce deaths and illness due to smoking. The links between smoking and stroke are clear – 10% of stroke deaths and a quarter of all strokes are linked to smoking. So giving up smoking is a vital step in reducing your risk of stroke and five years after giving up your risk will have returned to normal.”

Diabetes UK

Diabetes UK commented: “we support the smoking ban and we are pleased to hear that it may reduce the number of heart attacks by more than a third in countries where it is implemented. Smoking is harmful to everyone’s health, and in particular to the 2.5 million people with diabetes in the UK. People with the condition are already at increased risk of heart disease, stroke and other circulatory problems. Smoking doubles the risk of these problems. We encourage and support people with diabetes to give up smoking.”

The NHS claimed on Monday to have saved over 70,000 lives by supporting those who quit smoking.

What do you think?

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User comments...

  • "At the Health and Sports committee neither ASH Scotland nor Trading Standards Scotland could produce any evidence that many children were buying their cigarettes from shops or vending machines."

    Charles11 (Little Britain) Posted: 22/09/2009 15:48:01

  • "Well there's nothing like an unbiased report and this "is nothing like an unbiased report" I guess you can tell the smoking ban is coming up for review by the amount of pro ban press releases we have had lately. We have heard all this before especially with the Professor Jill Pell study claiming 17% reduction in heart attacks, it was debunked and so will these two so called "independent" reviews. Shame we can't have facts instead of spin."

    Cueball (Surrey) Posted: 22/09/2009 16:47:03

  • "These figures are made up out of thin air. It was shown that the figures came out before the actual statistics were released by the health authorities. In fact in Scotland the heart problems increased after the ban on figures that had steadily been falling pre ban. These figures are lies."

    Sheila Cook (London) Posted: 22/09/2009 19:29:01

  • "MORE PHONEY FIGURES AND MORE PROPERGANDA."

    clif e (london) Posted: 22/09/2009 21:01:43

  • "I find it very sad that institutions which had high standards have stooped to backing fallacious studies."

    Greg J Burrows (Dewsbury) Posted: 22/09/2009 22:07:31

  • "helloo i think smoking should be banned beucase it is bad for health :)"

    Saima Hafiz (UK) Posted: 05/10/2009 11:06:15

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