April 22, 2013

Cigarette Break

By Logan Lafferty

CLEARING THE AIR Secondhand smoke is more than a nuisance - it's a serious health issue. Nonsmokers who are regularly exposed to cigarette smoke increase their heart disease risk by 25 to 30 percent and their lung cancer risk by 20 to 30 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And it is now solidly proven that public-smoking bans have resounding health benefits—not just for smokers but for everyone. New research from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, found an astonishing 33 percent drop in heart-attack rates in one local county after public smoking bans were enacted. "If you could invent a pill that reduces heart attacks by 33 percent," says the Mayo Clinic's Richard D. Hurt, M.D., who led the study, "that would earn a Nobel Prize." And a recent citywide ban on public smoking in Pueblo. Colorado, led to a significant decrease in preterm births.

 

Vogue by Jancee Dunn

Tags: Alcohol and Tobacco, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Richard D. Hurt, heart disease, Lung Cancer, Mayo Clinic Rochester, public-smoking ban, Research, Secondhand Smoke, Vogue

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