State’s Clean Air Act Saves Lives
Four years after the New York state’s Clean Indoor Air Act was put into effect comes information that New Yorkers are having fewer heart attacks. The Act took effect in July 2003.
A study recently published in the American Journal of Public Health conducted by the state’s Department of Health found 3,813 fewer hospital admissions for heart attacks in the year 2004 alone. This is an 8 percent decline in what would be expected without the New York comprehensive indoor smoking ban. These fewer admissions translate into a direct healthcare cost savings of about $56 million.
Nationally, secondhand smoke kills an estimated 35,000 non-smokers from coronary heart disease every year. Laboratory research has shown that tobacco smoke from the burning end of a cigarette or exhaled from a smoker’s lungs can induce cardiovascular changes in nonsmokers. Even modest exposures to secondhand smoke have been shown to have adverse impacts on non-smokers. According to a 2006 Surgeon General’s report, there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke.
“The dramatic decline in heart attacks shows that New York’s law is working to reduce the health consequences of exposure to toxins in secondhand smoke,” said state Health Commissioner Richard F. Daines, M.D. “While previous studies have shown that non-smokers’ exposure to secondhand smoke was dramatically reduced following the implementation of the state Clean Indoor Air Act, this study goes further by showing a direct correlation with improved health.”
The study notes that the clinical implications of these results are most relevant for patients with existing cardiac conditions. While secondhand smoke can be harmful to everyone, cardiac patients must be extremely careful to avoid exposure to secondhand smoke. Physicians with cardiac patients who smoke should advise them to quit, and those who do not smoke should be advised to avoid any exposure to secondhand smoke.
“The risk of death from coronary heart disease increases by up to 30 percent among people regularly exposed to secondhand smoke at home or work,” said Paul Hartman, Senior Director of Advocacy for the American Heart Association. “Thousands of New Yorkers are clearly benefiting from the Clean Indoor Air Act, which removed this risk factor from work-sites across the state. We commend New York’s lawmakers for taking this bold step forward to protect the health of workers across New York. Clearly, the Clean Indoor Air Act is helping New Yorkers live longer, healthier lives.”