(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A law that prevents smoking in public areas is having a positive impact on public health.

Since March 2006, it has been illegal to smoke in any enclosed public place or workplace in Scotland. To see how the law has impacted public health, researchers used information from questionnaires and biochemical exams of patients admitted to nine Scottish hospitals during a 10-month time before the legislation went to action and during the same period the following year. Each patient was admitted for acute coronary syndrome.

Results showed after the legislation went into action, the number of patients admitted for acute coronary syndrome dropped by 17 percent, from 3,235 to 2,684. During the same time frame in England, where no ban on smoking in public places exists, the number of patients decreased by only four percent.
 

Most of that decrease in Scotland occurred with nonsmokers (67 percent). Researchers say nonsmokers who did seek treatment for the condition showed signs of secondhand smoke. “In our study, nonsmokers with acute coronary syndrome who were admitted to hospitals had higher cotinine concentrations than persons in the general population,” study authors wrote. “These findings are consistent with secondhand smoke being a risk factor for acute coronary syndrome.”

SOURCE: New England Journal of Medicine, 2008;359:482-91