Smoke-free workplace laws may help prevent heart attacks
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Cigarette smokers who want to give up the habit in order to prevent exposing their loved ones to secondhand smoke can buy cheap smoking cessation aides from an internet Canadian pharmacy. Secondhand smoke can have negative health effects, including cancer and breathing problems, according to the National Cancer Institute. New research from the Mayo Clinic suggests that implementing smoke-free workplace laws can help prevent heart attacks within a community.
Doctors conducted a retrospective study that analyzed data from the Rochester Epidemiology Project in Olmsted County, where comprehensive laws banned smoking in restaurants and other workplaces since 2007. In the 18 months before the first legislation of this kind was passed in 2002, there were about 212 heart attacks per 100,000 residents. During the same timespan after the ban in 2007, that rate dropped by about 45 percent, while the incidence of sudden cardiac death was cut in half.
While adult smoking had fallen 23 percent, other factors such as blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes and obesity did not decrease.
"Our findings provide support to the life-saving effect that smoke-free legislation can have among community members affected by these laws," said co-author Jon Ebbert, M.D., associate director of the Mayo Clinic's Nicotine Dependence Center. The researchers hope this study will support efforts to pass similar legislation around the world.
The findings were reported at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions.
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