A smoking ban in a Colorado city led to a dramatic drop in heart attack hospitalizations within three years. A study on the subject, the longest-running of its kind, showed the rate of hospitalized cases dropped 41 percent in the three years after the ban of workplace smoking in Pueblo, Colorado.
There was no such drop in two neighboring areas, and researchers believe it's a clear sign the ban was responsible. This suggests that secondhand smoke may be an under-recognized cause of heart attack deaths in the U.S.
At least eight earlier studies have linked smoking bans to decreased heart attacks.