Great news: After France and Italy had smoking bans for respectively 1 and 3 years, the countries had up to 15% less occurrences of heart attacks! Research confirms similiar results in Ireland and Scotland.

I guess the message here is: Stop Smoking and have measurably better heart health in only one year! 

- Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT 

French researchers announced a striking 15% decrease in admissions of patients with myocardial infarction to emergency wards since the public ban on smoking came into effect in restaurants, hotels and casinos in France last January. The announcement was made on 23 February by the National Sanitary Institute.

Similar results were published in Italy on 12 February by the Environmental Health Authority: researchers in Rome found an 11.2 percent reduction of acute coronary events since the January 2005 smoking ban took effect in Italy.

Prof David Thomas, of the European Society of Cardiology and a Senior Cardiologist in the Centre Hospitalier Pitié- Salpêtrière in Paris: "(…) (S)tatistics show the same tendency professionals have already observed in Ireland and Scotland when these countries introduced their own bans on tobacco.

To me, the most striking aspect in this study is the reduction of pollution inside cafés and restaurants by over 35%. Passive smoking has been shown to increase the risk of coronary heart disease and the recent smoking ban is obviously having a beneficial effect on both smokers and non-smokers."

Smoking bans can save lives.

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