MI admissions after ban

The ban on smoking in public places in England was followed by a small but statistically significant reduction in emergency admissions for MI, say researchers from Bath University (BMJ 2010;340:c2161).

    Comparing admission five years before the ban and 15 months afterwards, they estimated a 2.4 per cent fall in admissions – equivalent to 1200 cases per year. They note that this is a smaller reduction than reported for other countries because the prevalence of exposure to smoking was relatively low in England before the ban.