HHS HealthBeat (February 17, 2009)

Someone else’s smoke

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

There is no such thing as someone else’s smoke. If someone else is smoking and you breathe it, it’s in your body, which makes it your smoke. And because the smoke raises the risk of heart attacks, it could be your heart attack.

With that in mind, researchers in Pueblo, Colorado, checked what happened after Pueblo banned smoking in indoor workplaces. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rachel Kaufmann tells what the study found:

"Heart attack hospitalizations decreased dramatically in the first year and a half, but then continued to fall in the next year and a half, for a total decrease of 41 percent in the rate." (10 seconds)

Kaufmann says people should avoid indoor areas where smoking is allowed, and not allow smoking in their own homes or cars. And, she notes, smokers should quit.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: February, 17 2009