The ban on public smoking has caused a fall in fatal heart attack rates by about 10 percent, a study in Great Britain has found. Separate research has shown that fatal heart attacks have fallen by 14 percent in Scotland, two years after a ban on smoking. The ban on smoking is now considered to be one of the most successful public health initiatives ever, and the benefits will just accumulate as reduced cancers and chronic pulminary disease. The success of the program is adding to pressure to ban smoking in cars when children are inside, and even could extend to banning parents from smoking around their children, period, even in their own homes. The research into heart attack rates in England is being led by Bath University. About 275,000 people suffer heart attacks in Britain each year, of whom about 146,000 die.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6832384.ece
