Washington: Warning that passive smoking can
cause serious health hazards, including heart diseases, a new
report claimed that the risk could be reduced by 47 per0cent
if smoking ban is implemented effectively.
The report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the
health arm of the US National Academy of Sciences, said though
secondhand smoke exposure increases the risk of coronary heart
disease and cardiac arrest by 25-30 percent, smoking ban
reduces this risk drastically.
The report 'Secondhand Smoke Exposure and Cardiovascular
Effects: Making Sense of the Evidence' focused on an analysis
of data from 11 different epidemiological studies, which
examined the changes in heart attack rates after smoking bans
were imposed in US communities, as well as in Canada, Italy
and Scotland.
Each of the studies indicated a decrease in the rate of
heart attacks ranging between 6 percent and 47 percent,
depending on the study and the form of analysis.
However, it said that limited exposure to passive
smoking increased the risk of heart disease by 25-30 percent
in places without a ban.
"Given the prevalence of heart attacks and the resultant
deaths, smoking ban can have a substantial impact on public
health, said the report, which was sponsored by the the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
According to Matthew McKenna, director of the CDC Office
on Smoking and Health, the idea behind the study was to
address the debate in the scientific community about the link
between the enactment of smoking bans and the decrease in
heart attack rates.
And the key message of the report is that doctors need
to inform their patients about the new finding and advocate
public smoking bans, he said.
"When counseling patients about medicine, ... doctors
need to tell them there is a risk going into a room with
tobacco smoke in it. They're putting their lives at risk,"
said Dr McKenna.
Mary Anne McCaffree, a member of the American Medical
Association Board of Trustees, called the report "a wake-up
call to smokers".
"We hope the information in this report will encourage
smokers to quit -- if not for themselves, then for their
families," Dr McCaffree said.
Elizabeth Ross, Washington-based cardiologist and
American Heart Association spokeswoman, said, "The take-home
message is there's no amount of exposure to cigarette smoke
that's safe."
Bureau Report