Fewer people die prematurely at smoke-free workplaces. The rate of heart attacks, also known as myocardial infarctions, dropped in an area of Minnesota after smoke-free workplace laws were introduced, researchers from the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, reported in Archives of Internal Medicine today.

Secondhand smoke is also known as passive smoking or environmental tobacco smoke.

As background information, the authors explained that secondhand smoke exposure has been linked to coronary heart disease in non-smokers. In fact, some studies have associated passive smoking with a risk of cardiovascular diseases nearly as high as active smoking.

In the American Journal of Public Health (September 2012 issue), UCSF researchers published a study which found that secondhand smoke kills 42,000 non-smokers in the USA every year, including nearly 900 infants. The authors added that passive smoking causes 600,000 years of potential life lost annually in the USA, plus $6.6 billion in lost productivity.

Local and national health authorities implemented smoke-free laws in public and work places with the aim of reducing smoking, as well as the incidence of illness.

Richard D. Hurt, M.D., and team gathered data on the rates of sudden cardiac death and myocardial infarction in Olmsted County, Minnesota during the 18-months before smoke-free laws were introduced, and the 18-months afterwards. In 2002 smoke-free laws were put into practice, this was extended to the workplace and bars in 2007.

The researchers wrote:

“We report a substantial decline in the incidence of MI from 18 months before the smoke-free restaurant law was implemented to 18 months after the comprehensive smoke-free workplace law was implemented five years later.”

When they compared the 18-month period before smoke-free laws came into practice against the 18-months afterwards, they found that:

  • Myocardial infarction incidence had fallen by 33% from 150.8 per 100,000 people to 100.7
  • The sudden cardiovascular death rate fell by 17% from 109.1 to 92 per 100,000 people

The authors concluded:

“All people should avoid SHS exposure as much as possible, and those with CHD should have no exposure to SHS.”

It was not until 2006 when US health authorities officially warned about the dangers of secondhand smoke. The then US Surgeon General, Richard Carmona, made a strong condemnation of passive smoking. He explained that non-smokers who breathe in environmental tobacco smoke may be harming their health. Secondhand smoke is not just a nuisance, he emphasized; science has compellingly shown that it harms human health.

Commentary: Extending the Health Benefits of Clean Indoor Air Policies Sara Kalkhoran, M.D., and Pamela M. Ling, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of California, San Francisco, wrote: ]

“The results of the study by Hurt et al highlight some of the potential benefits of 100 percent smoke-free policies in workplaces, restaurants and bars: significantly decreased incidence of myocardial infarction and a trend toward decreased sudden cardiac death.

Moving forward, we should prioritize the enforcement of smoke-free policies, eliminating loopholes in existing policies as well as encouraging expansion of smoke-free policies to include multiunit housing, motor vehicles, casinos and outdoor locations.

Exposure to SHS should not be a condition of employment, and all workers, including those of lower income and those in the service and hospitality industries, should have equal protection from SHS exposure.”

Scientists from the Harvard School of Public health reported in Pediatrics (June 2010 issue) that children and teenagers who live in homes where there is no environmental tobacco smoke, and their homes are in areas with laws that promote smoke-free public places, have considerably lower levels of a biomarker of secondhand smoke exposure, compared to those who live in areas with no such smoke-free legislation.

They reported that children who live in tobacco-smoke-free environments had 39% less cotinine in their blood, compared to children with high exposure. Cotinine is an indicator of secondhand smoke exposure. Sadly, even kids who live in areas with smoke-free laws, derive few health benefits if there are smokers around who light up in the house.

Written by Christian Nordqvist