QuoteA public smoking ban in Italy has led to a fall in hospital admissions for heart attacks, research suggests.

Analysis of the Piedmont region revealed admissions fell by 11% in the first five months of the ban compared with the same period the previous year.

Writing in the European Heart Journal, the team said this was probably due to a drop in passive smoking exposure.

The Italian government banned smoking in all indoor public places, including cafes, bars and restaurants, in 2005.

It joins other countries including Ireland, Norway, South Africa and Sweden, which have enforced such a ban.

Smoking is linked to many adverse health effects, including lung cancer, and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.

Scientists from the University of Turin analysed hospital admissions for heart attacks and heart attack deaths for people under the age of 60 throughout the region of Piedmont, northern Italy.

They looked at the statistics for the period immediately after the ban came into force - from February to June 2005 - and compared this with the same period the previous year.

The team discovered that after the smoking ban there were 832 cases compared with 922 the previous year - a difference of 11%.

Victimless crime myth

Dr Francesco Barone-Adesi, the lead researcher from the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Turin, said: "The rates of acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) had, if anything, been increasing between 2001 and 2004, so the reduction we saw in the first half of 2005 was not attributable to long-term trends.

"In fact, as there was evidence that AMI was increasing over time, its possible that our estimate of an 11% decrease after the introduction of the ban is even an underestimate."

The researchers said they suspect this effect was mainly attributable to a reduction in passive smoking.

Dr Barone-Adesi said: "Our findings suggest that smoking regulations may have important short-term effects on health."

In an accompanying editorial in the same journal, Peter Radke and Heribert Schunkert of the University Hospital of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, wrote: "Smoking bans have been criticised in the last decade for numerous reasons.

"The argument of the victimless crime, however, clearly and finally has to leave the discussion based on the accumulating data, including the current article by Barone-Adesi."

Ruairi OConnor, British Heart Foundation (BHF) public affairs manager, said: "While treating the results of this small study with some caution, these encouraging findings show that smoke-free policies may have a significant short-term impact on the incidence of heart attacks.

"Successful implementation of smoke-free policies across the UK cant happen soon enough.

"Policy makers around the world should follow the lead taken by politicians in countries like Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland and introduce smoke-free policies within their own borders."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5398836.stm

Yeah, but they look 35% less cool.

Quote from: maximusotterYeah, but they look 35% less cool.

But still look 1,000% more cool than a smoker whos coughing up their lungs or suffering from heart problems or lung cancer

Yey, itd really turning into this seasons most fashionable evil thing to pick on!

Of course, the fact that people are probably spending a lil less time in cafes, bars and restaurants eating junk and binge-drinking (like in Ireland where pub biz is down 10-15%), has nothing to do with anything.

Yey for blinkers

Dunno about anywhere else, but it is considerably cheaper & safer to stay at home and get drunk than it is to go out to a pub. This trend was beginning when I was working in pubs, almost two years ago!

Maybe the trend has just begun in Italy?

Quote from: sdpYey, itd really turning into this seasons most fashionable evil thing to pick on!

Of course, the fact that people are probably spending a lil less time in cafes, bars and restaurants eating junk and binge-drinking (like in Ireland where pub biz is down 10-15%), has nothing to do with anything.

Yey for blinkers

My father died of congenital heart disease at 73, for which smoking is one of the big contributors, my mother passed away a month ago from lung cancer, also a smokers disease, my mothers father died of lung cancer caused by smoking. Smoking related illness is a big killer and its not just this seasons most fashionable evil thing to pick on, its every seasons most fashionable evil thing to pick on  

*Yawn*

I choose to smoke(and pay sh*tloads of extra tax to do so), all that banning me from smoking inside a pub is going to do is have me sit outside under the nice dry, warm pagoda type thing the owner of my local bar has put in.  If the non-smokers then whine about not being able to sit in there because we are smoking they will get told to Get F***ed.  Its been put in ready for the smoking ban, for the smokers to use.  

All the superior attitude many non-smokers display does it make me light up, preferably less than 2 feet away from them.  "i dont smoke, so you shouldnt" isnt an argument.  its a statement of smugness.  I know the risks, and I also know that im paying cold hard cash to the govenment because of it.  IIRC its about Ã,£3.75 per packet in tax.  

Increase tax on bacci / booze and decrease the tax on food

If The Government where that serious about people not smoking they would ban the sale of tobacco product.  As it is they make too much money from the sale of cigs to do it.