Saturday 11 April 2009

Watching The Tumbleweed


Some might remember a flurry of media activity in September 2007 as hacks scrambled over each other to report on a tiny study which claimed a 17% reduction in heart attacks after the scottish smoking ban.

I wonder if they will be as keen to mention this rather larger study. In fact, it is the largest study ever undertaken on the impact of smoking bans. It examined 217,023 heart attack admissions and 2 million heart attack deaths in 468 counties in all 50 states of the USA over an eight-year period.

The conclusion?

we find that workplace bans are not associated with statistically significant short-term declines in mortality or hospital admissions for myocardial infarction or other diseases. An analysis simulating smaller studies using subsamples reveals that large short-term increases in myocardial infarction incidence following a workplace ban are as common as the large decreases reported in the published literature.

That's scientist speak for smoking bans haven't made any impact whatsoever. How inconvenient for the fake charity community.

I'm sure the BBC and assorted UK press will be all over this soon.

H/T Michael Siegel




4 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

Good find.

But think of the chi-i-ildren!!

Mac the Knife said...

"I'm sure the BBC and assorted UK press will be all over this soon."

Now look what you've done! I've pissed a perfectly good pair of trousers because of you...

banned said...

Excellent, please keep reminding us of this.

Anonymous said...

Post it again.

It bears repeating!