BOSTON, Nov. 12, 2008
Fewer Heart Attack Deaths Post-Smoking Ban
Public Health Officials In Mass. Credit Less Secondhand Smoke
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Photo
(AP / CBS)
The study conducted by the state Department of Public Health and the Harvard School of Public Health showed that the number of heart attacks began dropping in communities with strong anti-smoking laws even before the 2004 law. Reductions were also seen in communities after the state ban, and by the end of 2006, the rate of decline in all cities and towns had nearly converged.
The authors said the pattern shows that advances in treatment of heart attacks were not responsible for the smaller number of deaths. The study also accounted for variables including pollution, smoking prevalence and seasonality before concluding the smoking ban was the biggest factor in declining deaths.
"While there may be several factors that played a role in this decline, we believe the single most compelling reason was reduced exposure to secondhand smoke in workplaces across the state," DPH Commissioner John Auerbach said.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Government spin is still spin.
This is precisely why nobody can believe anything anymore that cites some ''study'' or ''scientific evidence'' - because it''s become SO corrupted & agenda driven that it''s completely lost any credibility it once had... and that''s a shame, because when you really don''t know WHAT to believe anymore - you tend to believe nothing - and that''s precisely what gets done.... nothing.
Hey, Massachusetts - I know that a lot of both these studies and the smoking bans themselves are vigorously financed by the insurance industry...both through campaign donations and in ways that are highly unlikely to disturb any crumbs lying atop the table.
Since you have seen a decline in heart attack deaths, and the article claims "that advances in treatment of heart attacks were not responsible" and so one is forced to assume that the incidence of heart attacks - and thus the costs insurance companies are exposed to - are also down, one would think that the insurance companies are charging you less.
Is that the case?
(lollll...I kill me.)
Government spin is still spin.
Posted by greeneyes222
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The statistics would be much clear if a study conducted on the effects of drinking(unlike smoking this include innocent bystanders). However it will never be done since the media and cities depend on the revenue it creates
Congrats on making it out alive... but you sir, are stupid....
Congrats on making it out alive... but you sir, are stupid....
Posted by sepa2 at 11:41 AM : Nov 12, 2008
Gee...the first whiff of the 2nd Prohibition, and it appears on CBS.
A historic day!
Wonder how long before they will outlaw fat people, people who sweat too much, people who use too much perfume and/or cologne, keys because keys can fit in electrical outlets, motorcycles because they are less stable than automobiles, babies who are picked up without being fitted with a crash helmet...
Me, I''m waiting for them to make not washing your hands after going to the bathroom a felony with a death penalty.
Only THEN will I know that I am "safe".
(P.S. There may be a correlation between the reduction in heart attacks and the number of people who quit exerting themselves in the - seasonal - cold and heat to go to bars and restaurants because they could not smoke there.)
Posted by dogsoul at 12:00 PM : Nov 12, 2008
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Yeah, I''m stupid...I have a heart attack and so I do some research online to find out why. So I present just a few of my findings to this forum to, maybe, alert others to the danger.
You, on the otherhand, are brilliant. You claim my findings are absurd. And yet, you produce nothing to back your claim.
But, you must be correct dogsoul. So sit back, have a smoke and watch the black helicopters circle your house...because you know too much.
But, you must be correct dogsoul. So sit back, have a smoke and watch the black helicopters circle your house...because you know too much.
Posted by daren12 at 12:29 PM : Nov 12, 2008
Using empirical evidence, then:
If one night''s exposure to second-hand smoke can cause a heart attack, people here in Pennsylvania should be dropping like flies.
They are all the time burning their trash...
Once or twice a year, masses of them go outside and burn their leaves, etc...
Said activities expose them to even more carcinogens, heavy metals, etc. than second-hand cigarette smoke does.
Posted by Daren12 at 11:50 AM : Nov 12, 2008
Interesting reading at http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2006/09/action-on-smoking-and-health-ash-is.html:
[bq]
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) is probably one of the boldest liars in the tobacco control movement
On their webpage they claim:
Drifting tobacco smoke already kills more people than motor vehicle accidents, all crimes, AIDS, illegal drugs, etc. In other words, people are statistically more likely to die as a result of drifting tobacco smoke than by a car, gun, or the AIDS virus.
A bold faced lie if ever there was one. [...] So we know as a fact that more people are killed by motor vehicle accidents, all crimes, AIDS, illegal drugs, etc. than from secondhand smoke......ASH is telling a whopper of a lie and hoping that the public and lawmakers are too stupid to think for themselves.
Motive?
ASH is a member organization of the Center for Tobacco-Free Kids which was funded by Nicoderm interests at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, $70,000,000.00 worth of funding to be exact.
"....gee why would an alternative nicotine product manufacturer -J & J/RWJF want its competitor - the tobacco companies'' products to be banned?...."
Perhaps to continue selling $500,000,000.00 worth of smoking cessation products annually.
[eq]
Posted by ibsteve2u at 12:38 PM : Nov 12, 2008
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Empirical evidence?!!...lol
Yeah, standing outside with a subtle breeze burning trash is exactly like being in a unventilated heavily smoke filled room. especially since everyone that burns trash likes to stand right in the smoke and draw it into their lungs. Nothing like inhaling the smoke of a burning plastic milk carton on a warm summers eve!...rethink your logic Steve!
A historic day!
Posted by ibsteve2u
A study on halmful effects have nothing to do with prohibition. Hope a dope lover like you won''t end up on an innocent driver''s hood or in someone''s living room. Alcohol is the main cause of violence, rapes and deaths among teens and has reached epidemic proportins according to Mass lawmakers
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Posted by navyjimfl at 12:43 PM
So true. In anatomy class we examined the body of a 50 year old man who died from lung disease caused by smoking. I never imagined that a 50 year old man would have died from such a thing. I thought it only happened to the very old. Regularly, I see former smokers carrying around oxygen tanks while riding their mobility scooter down the road. It is a real tragedy.
And I would not dream of inflicting my smoking upon you, for I have found that the more rabidly vicious the anti-smoker, the smaller the mind.
Unfortunately, there are large numbers of people who cannot seem to get by unless there is some variety of human that they can look down upon, insult, and hate.
I am proud to be their target, and consider my smoking - since it is politically correct to despise me - to have, at least to some extent, alleviated racism or gender bias or one or another of the historical bigotries by providing that sort of person with a socially-acceptable alternative.
Posted by ibsteve2u at 01:22 PM : Nov 12, 2008
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Listen Steve, you sound like a very intelligent guy, whose intelligence has been skewed by his addicition.
Nobody is going to take your smokes away! Nobody hates you (that I know of). I have 3 very close friends that are heavy smokers (and talk just like you...hmmm). I still hang with them (but only outdoors when they''re smoking). All I''m trying to do is alert non-smokers to the dangers of secondhand smoke filled rooms. It doesn''t mean you will have a heart attack. In fact, I would go so far as to say odds are you wouldn''t. But I do believe you dramaticly increase the odds that you will. The more risk factors you have going in (no exercise etc)...the greater the risk. You''ll note that at no time was I insulting to you personally. I find it interesting how you and dogsoul both resort to personal attacks (small minded, stupid). SO enjoy your smokes and look out your livingroom window...here come the black helicopters! (just kidding).
Buddy - you were going to have a heart attack even if you had spent the night by yourself on a pristine beach in Hawaii...
I don''t smoke - but you see, there''s a problem with idiots like yourself & agenda driven liars using faulty studies. The thinking is - hey, smoking is bad for you so who cares if we trump up a bunch of b.s. - the ends justify the means, right? Well, what ends up happening is that you degrade (have degraded more accurately) the credibility of said studies such that they become absolutely meaningless... and while you may see some short-term gains, it ends up hurting yours & many other causes in the long run.
Posted by daren12 at 01:50 PM : Nov 12, 2008
Now I will be the one to split hairs (I happen to be waiting for a process to complete on one of my systems, so I have the time).
I never said that any one particular person was "small-minded", and that would include not saying that you were "small-minded".
My exact words were "I have found that the more rabidly vicious the anti-smoker, the smaller the mind."
I understand those who do not want to be around cigarette smoke because of the odor, the possible health effects, etc.
I do not like being around factories that emit tons of heavy metals and carcinogens, but I have no industry selling products to alleviate the effects of withdrawal from pollution to back me up, and the insurance companies make too much money from their corporate clients to be honest in that arena.
But some people go far beyond expressing their distaste...those are the ones I call "small-minded":
The people who jump at any excuse to disparage others.
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Posted by ibsteve2u at 01:22 PM
You are just so full of it. I have relatives for whom I care deeply that smoke. I don''t hate them nor do I look down upon them, but I sure wish they didn''t smoke. I hate to see that the smoking industry has them so hooked on a drug that depletes their money left and right. I hate to see them so addicted that if they don''t smoke they can''t function. I hate to see the slow and debilitating effects it takes on their health from day to day causing throat damage, disgusting hacking and coughing that they try to say is just a cold, and then to watch people end up on oxygen tanks and for WHAT???? To keep a bunch of tobacco executives rich??? People who defend this krap make me sick.
Tell me, does ANYONE know of a person in their family, at work, friends--anyone--who has passed away due to the effects of second hand smoke? Probably not!!!
Don''t get me wrong, the cigarette company executives are low-lifes for increasing the addictive properties of cigarettes. Cigarette smoke (and smokers and their clothes, homes and cars) do smell. I can think of no reasons to begin smoking but at the same time, there''s no reason to throw misinformation and funky statistics into it.
Smokers? Annoying. Drunk drivers? Monsters who don''t deserve to drive ever again. But we''re digressing....
- No. Do you mind if I ***.
Do what you like with your own lungs but don''t expect me to breathe it or pay for your medical treatment.
- No. Do you mind if I f art?
Do what you like with your own lungs but don''''t expect me to breathe it or pay for your medical treatment.
Posted by rushman71
My aunt died of lung cancer, after being exposed to her husbands second-hand smoke for years.
Do you mind if I smoke?
No. Do you mind if I spraw nerve gas in your face?
Farts can''t kill you but smoke certainly can. :-)
"- Do you mind if I smoke?
- No. Do you mind if I f art?
Do what you like with your own lungs but don''''''''t expect me to breathe it or pay for your medical treatment. "
Second hand smoke has been documented in THOUSANDS of studies to contain very harmful chemicals. Unlike the smoke you draw in when you inhale, second hand smoke isn''t even filtered, so it has a much higher tar content.
As an asthmatic, I can tell you personally that YES, second hand smoke is harmful. I''ve had several instances now of having asthma attacks so bad that even my rescue inhaler wasn''t enough and I had to go to the ER.
You are entitled to do whatever you want with your own body, but don''t expect the rest of us to tolerate it when you affect OUR health, through no choice or fault of our own. That is why I don''t have much sympathy for "smokers rights", you are asking for all of the rights and none of the responsibility, and it affects more than just you if you''d stop being so bloody self-centered.
Posted by Osiod9
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Sure, where do you want me to flame you?
if that was true, there wouldn''t be any smokers
they''d all be dead in less than a year
Thousands die every year due to smoking. Idiot.
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by grammawhamma
November 14, 2008 9:25 AM EST
- Strong perfumes and colognes also trigger severe asthma attacks.
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You want to talk about deadly fumes? Go sit in an enclosed area with just one car running. When are you going to be willing to give up your form of transportation and start walking? Yeah, that''s right, I didn''t think so.
At least people have the option of avoiding second hand smoke....but unless you live in the wilderness you are forced to breath in auto exhaust. When are you going to jump on that band wagon?