St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Nonsmokers benefit from bans, study finds
COMPILED BY HARRY JACKSON JR.
FROM NEWS SERVICES
Monday, Dec. 17 2007

Nonsmokers gain the most from public smoking bans, while smokers will probably
see few health benefits, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that heart attacks among nonsmokers dropped by 70 percent
after one county enacted such a ban, but the number of heart attacks among
smokers didn't change. Moreover, in a matched county used as a control that
didn't ban smoking, heart attacks among nonsmokers declined just 11 percent
over the same time period.

"The benefit of the ban appears to come from reduced exposure to second-hand
smoke among nonsmokers," says Dr. Dong-Chul Seo, of Indiana University, one of
the researchers.

These observations provide evidence that any health effects of smoking bans are
due to nonsmokers being exposed to less secondhand smoke, rather than smokers
cutting down on cigarettes or quitting, the researchers say.

"Smokers would continue to smoke regardless of a public smoking ban," Seo said.
"For the nonsmokers, it's a totally different situation."

For more information on the study:  http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/5610.html