|
|
|
|
A significant health benefit |
|
Tuesday, 10 November 2009 |
By KELLY DANIELS
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
A study at Mississippi State has found that decreases in second-hand smoke lead to fewer heart attacks.
Dr. Robert McMillen and Dr. Bob Collins examined records of heart attacks at Oktibbeha County Hospital, which have decreased by 27 percent in the three years since Starkville’s public smoking ban was enacted by city officials.
“Although the methods and the size of heart attack reductions have varied across studies, the general finding has remained consistent,” the report read.
McMillen, a professor at MSU’s Social Science Research Center, was a key player in introducing the smoking ban to the city and the elected leaders who supported it.
He looked at OCH’s records because people in Starkville who suffer heart attacks are vulnerable to time and will usually go to the nearest emergency health facility.
Some severe cases are rushed to Tupelo, but those were also recorded at OCH and included in the study.
McMillen plans on studying other possible health benefits of the smoking ban, such as lung cancer, when the time is right.
“One of the differences between heart disease and lung cancer is that it takes years for lung problems to develop,” he said.
Lung cancer, according to Dr. McMillen, would be the perfect candidate for a longitudinal study.
Collins, the director of University Health Services at MSU, has been a part of smoke-free initiatives since he kicked the habit himself over 30 years ago.
He says the new research, along with 11 other studies worldwide, means there is tangible proof that public smoking bans are a public health issue.
“It was very nice to be able to sit here and say this is data that came straight from Starkville, Mississippi,” he said.
“By and large, that data is generated in Starkville about Starkville natives.”
The analysis was a comparison of the three years following the
public smoking ban and the three years prior.
And the report explains that second-hand smoking has the opposite affect on the heart as aspirin, which is supposed to decrease the risk of heart-disease by decreasing platelet activity forming clots that can cause a heart attack by being lodged in the heart.
“Just as aspirin can reduce the risk of a heart attack by decreasing platelet activity, secondhand smoke increases the risk of having a heart attack by increasing platelet activity and increasing the likelihood of a free-float blood clot,” the report reads.
Starkville was the first municipality in Mississippi to ban smoking in public places, with dozens of city’s following the lead. City leaders are also implementing a smoke-free workplaces policy for employees.
Now, the city is one of 360 communities that ban smoking in public places.
Carrying with it some bad news, the report showed Mississippi lagging in public health efforts compared to the rest of the nation.
While the number of U.S. citizens living under a smoke-free ban amounts to over two-thirds the population, less than 10 percent of Mississippians are subject to a one.
But, in Starkville, no one seems to be doing worse than before. Restaurant-owners have not complained about losing money after three years of smoke free business.
In fact, most quarterly sales tax reports show an increase in sales tax even after the recession set in. Matt Cox, the former Ward 5 alderman who championed the smoking ban, remembers controversy surrounding the idea when it was proposed at City Hall.
“It is funny to remember that at the time it was considered politically risky to lead the state with our no smoking initiative,” he said.
“Hopefully, the positive health data combined with strong restaurant business results will encourage other communities to seriously consider taking action.”
Dr. Collins said there is no excuse for other communities not to enact a smoking ban.
In fact, he added, the state should take action as a whole, and he hopes the state legislature will pay attention.
“It wouldn’t cost the state anything,” he said, explaining how the “no-brainer” would contribute to saving money.
It costs insurance companies an average of $55,000 to fund aid for a heart-attack.
“We have saved $750,000,” Dr. Collins said.
“If our data can be extrapolated to the state, that works out to $125 million per year that’s not being spent on heart related illnesses.”
The only people who would suffer financially from a state-wide public smoking ban, according to Dr. Collins, are those in the tobacco industry.
“I think they have made enough money off of human misery,” he said.
|
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 11 November 2009 )
|
 |
|
|
|
