Scotland smoking ban credited with fewer heart attacks

The number of people admitted to the hospital for heart attacks fell by 17% in the year after Scotland’s smoking ban took effect in March 2006, according to a study. The study’s author says the size of the decline strongly suggests it was the smoke-free law and not some other trend or lifestyle change that prevented the heart attacks. In the decade before the law was in place, heart attack admissions fell by an average of about 3% a year. And heart attacks fell by 4% in the same period in neighboring England, where a smoking ban took effect beginning in July 2007.