Anti-smoking laws in England prevented 1 200 heart attacks in their first year, according to a study published by the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
The analysis is based on emergency hospital admissions for England, a country with a population of 49 million, from July 2002 to September 2008. The legislation, introduced on July 1 2007, outlawed smoking in all enclosed work places and public places such as bars and restaurants.
In its first year of implementation, there was a "significant drop" of 2.4% in acute myocardial infarction, the paper says.
Men and women aged over 60 were the biggest beneficiaries. - (Sapa, June 2010)