Another study confirms that areas that have a smoking ban experience significant drops in heart attack rates. These findings also teach us a lot about the danger of secondhand smoke.

These latest stats came in today from Colorado.

A smoking ban in one Colorado city led to a dramatic drop in heart attack hospitalizations, according to a new study that is considered the best and longest-term research to show such a link.

The rate of hospitalized cases dropped 41 percent three years after the ban of workplace smoking in Pueblo, Colo., took effect. There was no such drop in two neighboring areas, and researchers believe it’s a clear sign the ban was responsible.

The study suggests that secondhand smoke may be a terrible and under-recognized cause of heart attack deaths in this country, said one of its authors, Terry Pechacek of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At least eight earlier studies have linked smoking bans to decreased heart attacks, but none ran as long as three years.

Smoking bans are designed not only to cut smoking rates but also to reduce secondhand tobacco smoke. It is a widely recognized cause of lung cancer, but its effect on heart disease can be more immediate. It not only damages the lining of blood vessels, but also increases the kind of blood clotting that leads to heart attacks. Reducing exposure to smoke can quickly cut the risk of clotting, some experts said.

Secondhand smoke causes an estimated 46,000 heart disease deaths and about 3,000 lung cancer deaths among nonsmokers each year, according to statistics cited by the CDC.

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In 1990, San Luis Obispo set a trend that many states followed soon, when it was the first city in the U.S. to enforce a smoking ban in public buildings, that included bars and restaurants. Now it is considering putting a stop to smoking outdoors.

Mayor Dave Romero and the city council will bounce around ideas in the spring or early summer of 2009.

Will San Luis Obispo once again be setting the pace for the rest of the country?

- Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT

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A San Francisco Superior Court judge threw out a Walgreens lawsuit Friday that attempted to stop San Francisco’s ordinance banning tobacco sales by pharmacies.

On Dec. 1, the Boston Public Health Commission approved a similar law, banning tobacco sales in pharmacies and drug stores, as well as hospitals and colleges. The law is set to take effect in February.

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Reasons To Stop Smoking: Massachusetts Smoking Ban Saves 600 Lives So Far

Today, I have great news to report:

The Harvard School of Public Health and the Massachusetts Public Health Department say that almost 600 less heart attack deaths occurred since their statewide smoking ban started in 2004!

Dr. Michael Siegel, a Boston University School of Public Health specialist in tobacco control, used to be very critical of smoking bans, and even of Harvard’s previous research. He now has this to say:

"This is the strongest study yet done of the effect of smoking bans on heart attacks. You can no longer argue that these declines would have occured simpy due to medical treatment."

I could not agree any stronger, Dr. Siegel!

- Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT

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Reasons To Stop Smoking: San Francisco - Judge Denies Bid To Stop Ban On Cigarette Sales In Drug Stores

A federal judge denied a motion by Philip Morris USA Inc. for a preliminary injunction that would have put on hold San Francisco’s ban on tobacco sales by pharmacies until the cigarette company’s lawsuit against the city is resolved.

The ordinance is the first of its kind in the nation. It was approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in July, signed by Mayor Gavin Newsom in August and went into effect Oct. 1. Read my post on that.

Philip Morris, the nation’s largest cigarette company, argued in court filings that the city’s regulation violates the First Amendment because it effectively forces tobacco companies to pull the advertising that accompanies its products in drug stores.

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Another city in Los Angeles county says ‘Stop Smoking here’! After Santa Monica, Burbank, Calabasas, Thousand Oaks, Baldwin Park, and most recently Pasadena, Glendale now also has a strict citywide smoking ban - and it is effective immediately!

To protect people from secondhand smoke, smoking is prohibited in parks, all city property, publicly accessible private property, common areas of apartment complexes, hotel rooms, and outdoor dining patios (unless there is a 10-foot separation between smokers and non-smokers).

A task force to enforce these strategies will be formed, and repeat offenders will have to pay fines of up to $500.

- Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT

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If you are a smoker in the Los Angeles area you may as well decide to quit smoking now - before the government will make that decision for you. Ignore this and find yourself paying up to $500 in fines:

After Thousand Oaks, Baldwin Park, and South Pasadena, the city of Pasadena is set to be the next place in Southern California that may enforce a smoking ban that will make it extremely hard to find a place in public to light up. The ordinance could take effect in 30 days.

- Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT

The City Council voted Monday to enact a smoking ban that would put extensive restrictions on smoking outdoors in non-residential areas of the city.

The new rules will prohibit smoking in outdoor shopping and dining areas, in ATM and movie ticket lines, within 20 feet of building entrances and at outdoor events like the Rose Parade. That would make it nearly impossible to smoke in Old Pasadena, and other commercial districts of the city.

Violators would be fined $100 for a first offense, $200 for a second and $500 for third or subsequent violations, according to staff reports. Smoking in parks is already prohibited in the city.

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As of today, drugstores in San Francisco can no longer sell cigarettes.

While this basically sounds like a good idea, it is limited to drugstores only! Meaning: Any grocery store with a pharmacy in it can actually continue to sell cigarettes in San Francisco!!!

Lawmakers argue that sick folks shouldn’t be confronted with cancer-causing products when getting their medications at drugstores. – So what about the masses of people who get their prescriptions at a pharmacy at Safeway’s or CostCo?

Needless to say, the Walgreen’s chain and Philip Morris have filed lawsuites against San Francisco, contending this distinction violates the law.

Believe me, I am all for that kind of ban - but it should make more sense than what the city came up with thus far.

- Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT

Click below for a complete article on this topic from the San Francisco Chronicle

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More good news from yet another important study out of the UK:

400.000 British smokers quit smoking, and over 2 billion cigarettes less were smoked since the introduction of last year’s smoking ban in the UK. Researchers estimate that 40.000 lives will be saved there over the next 10 years.

- Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT

The smoking ban in England, introduced a year ago, has dramatically increased the number of people giving up the habit, it is claimed.

A survey suggests more than 400,000 people quit smoking as a result of the smoking ban.
Researchers say this could potentially help save as many as 40,000 lives in the next 10 years.

Separate research suggests the ban may have helped people with lung disease stay out of hospital.

The ban on smoking in public places was designed principally to protect people from secondhand smoke.

However, as in Scotland, which introduced the ban a year earlier, there are signs that it is providing the motivation for people to try to give up.

A survey of 32,000 people, found that smoking fell by 5.5% in the nine months after the ban, compared with 1.6% in the previous nine months.

On the basis of this, it was estimated that in excess of 400,000 gave up as a direct result of the ban.

Professor Robert West, who carried out the research at the Health Behaviour Research Unit, said he had not expected such a dramatic impact.

"These figures show the largest fall in the number of smokers on record. The effect has been as large in all social groups - poor as well as rich."

Cancer Research UK, which funded the research, said that the momentum now needed to be maintained.

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Today I am thrilled to deliver some very exciting news:

The number of heart attacks in the UK has fallen dramatically -as much as 41%!!! - after the country’s smoking ban in public places started in July of 2007. Is that an awesome number, or what?! Read on.

- Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT

The number of heart attacks has fallen dramatically since the ban on smoking in public places was introduced last year, latest figures reveal.

More than half of hospital trusts in England are treating fewer heart attacks since the ban came on July 1 last year.

Nearly six in ten [NHS trusts] are reporting a fall in the number of heart attack patients being admitted to emergency wards.

There were 1,384 fewer heart attacks across the county in the nine months after the legislation was introduced compared with the same period a year earlier. That translates to a three per cent fall across the country since the ban.

Some hospitals have seen the number of cases fall by 41 per cent since July 2007.

The figures, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, are the first available proof that the smoking ban has had a significant impact on health across England.

Experts believe the ban has triggered a drop in heart attacks due to both the number of people quitting and the reduction in passive smoking as fewer people are exposed to airborne toxins.

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