Bans on smoking reduce heart attacks

September 22, 8:24 AMLA Smoking ExaminerVJ Sleight

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the LA Smoking Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Two new studies published this week report that smoking bans have an immediate and dramatic effect on reducing the number of heart attacks. When smoking bans are in place, the rate of heart attacks drops 17% within one year. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the United States. Each year 80 million individuals will have one or more types of CVD:

• 935,000 heart attacks each year: 610, 000 new cases and 325,000 recurrent cases
• 1.3 million hospitalizations for CVD
• 475 billion spent per year for direct and indirect costs of heart disease

Seventy percent of Americans have at least one risk factor for CVD:

• Smoking, currently 20% of the population smoke
• High blood pressure: 33% of the population have high BP but only 69% have it under control and 28% are prehypertensive
• High intake of sodium
• Obesity
• Diabetes

Having any risk factor for CVD will have a greater impact on health when exposed to secondhand smoke (environmental tobacco smoke) because the cardiovascular system is very sensitive and is responsive to very low doses of toxins. Environmental tobacco smoke is a complex mixture of of gases and particles that comes off of the tip of a burning cigarette or cigar and smoke that is exhaled by the smoker (second hand smoke).  

 One half of all individuals who die suddenly from CVD, had no previous symptoms. Every individual that has any of the known risks for CVD should avoid environmental tobacco smoke, which is the most cost effective and readily available method for preventing heart attacks and heart disease. The effects of 30 minutes in a smoke filled room will continue to damage the lining of the blood vessels for 24 hours.

 The effects on the cardiovascular system are different than the effects that would lead to cancer. When environmental tobacco smoke has carcinogens, the exposure is low. About 3000 cases of lung cancer are related to environmental tobacco smoke. But the cardiovascular system is different. It is constantly changing and adapting to sitting in a chair to standing up and walking. As smoke enters the lungs, it is transfered to the blood vessels and the lining of the blood vessels is 1 cell thick to allow the transfer of oxygen and nutrients to pass from the blood vessels to all the cells of the body. This delicate tissue is easily damaged when exposed to the harmful components of environmental tobacco smoke which can increase the risk of CVD in non-smokers by 25-30% when exposed to environmental tobacco smoke at home or at work. The effect is accumulative so a non-smoker exposed to heavy tobacco smoke has almost the same CVD risk as a light smoker. An estimated 50,000 deaths each year is attributed to CVD caused by exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, more than are killed in car accidents.