Nonsmokers Take Heart

I read this article in the July 2008 edition of Good Housekeeping.

"Studies have shown that when towns ban smoking in public places, the number of heart attacks drops significantly. Now research from Indiana University pinpoints that it's nonsmokers who benefit first. In the 22 months after Indiana's Monroe County outlawed smoking in restaurants, workplaces, and stores, hospital admissions for heart attacks fell a whopping 70 percent - but only among nonsmokers. Admissions stayed the same for smokers. A halt on lighting up in public helps nonsmokers most quickly, says lead researcher Dong-Chul Seo, Ph.D., because "whithin 30 minutes of exposure to secondhand smoke, blood becomes stickier and more prone to clotting. Plus the level of carbon monoxide rises, so heart cells get less oxygen." But Seo expects that smokers would see a payoff "as they cut quit or cut down." If you're a smoker who would like to kick the habit, look for a program with in-depth counseling. That, plus a supply of nicotine-replacement patches, gum, or lozenges, almost doubled smokers' quit rates versus only brief counseling with the nicotine replacements, reports a study from Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research."

I knew that second-hand smoke was bad, but I was really amazed to see these kind of figures!