A recent study provides surprising results of the effects that could be achieved due to partial or total ban on smoking. Heart attacks have dropped by 17 percent in Scotland since smoking was banned in public last year.
Health Campaigns and health education which costed millions to the state were not at all effective. These campaigns running since last many years were not able to put any significant reduction in the number of heart related ailments (annual rate of about 3 percent reduction in heart attack rates) caused due to smoking. With the introduction of smoke ban this number miraculously increased to about 17% in a single year.
Fewer heart attacks in Scottish people were achieved because Scots were no longer inhaling other people cigarette smoke when they sat in the pub, the train, bus stop or office. The ban is also likely to cut rates of cancer in the long term.
Similar type of results were achieved in town of Helena, Montana where a six-month ban on smoking in all public places slashed the number of heart attacks in a US town by almost a half in 2003. The researchers here too attributed the dramatic drop due to the elimination of harmful effects of passive smoking.
These findings highly suggests that reduction in passive smoking not only makes life more pleasant for non smokers but starts saving their lives too
These findings could be further investigated in research papers presented at an international conference for impact of smoking ban on Scotland’s health, air quality and society.
A few steps that could be taken at state or even city levels for faster/effective results:
- Awareness among people about risks of passive smoking
- A complete ban on smoking at public places like railways, pubs, hotels, bus stops, schools, hospitals, canteens etc.
- Acceptance of person in the society to be hospitable even if he/she is anti smoker.
- Health messages and the high strictness of smoking restrictions in the form of fines and imprisonment.
