17% less heart attacks have been reported since scotland introduced the smoking ban in public places...

 

sounds like a resounding success then! :P lol.

17% less heart attacks have been reported since scotland introduced the smoking ban in public places...

 

sounds like a resounding success then! :P lol.

 

It's certainly an impressive drop. It can't be said for certain that it's down to the smoking ban but it has to be the most likely cause. Let's hope for a similar story in the rest of the UK.

Yep, it will end up being a success like her in Ireland. Ok, pubs will lose some business, but overall it is a very good thing when it comes to health, and besides, all smokers I know, go out just as much as they did before, and actually like going outside for a fag :lol:

I'm assuming this thread hasn't had many replies because it's some good news for a change. We prefer bad news to whinge about - which is, of course, what the sensationalist tabloids provide.

Slightly OT but did people see on the news the other week that loads of pubs have bought tobacco fragranced air freshner as more people complain of the smell now (sweat, BO and p***) that they did before (tobacco).

I'm assuming this thread hasn't had many replies because it's some good news for a change. We prefer bad news to whinge about - which is, of course, what the sensationalist tabloids provide.

 

I think you're right. On the same lines, how many interviews have you heard with the ministers who introduced the legislation being given a chance to celebrate the ban's success? How many interviews have there been where opponents of the ban have been given challenged to admit that they were wrong?

 

Regardless of the party in power, the press and - even more so - the broadcast media prefer to concentrate on failure rather than success.

 

 

It could be because the numbers up here in Scotland were so bad that anything that stops smoking will have a huge impact in percentage terms, I'm in favour of it anyway

How many interviews have there been where opponents of the ban have been given challenged to admit that they were wrong?

 

good point!

 

wheres grimly and russt?.. :lol:

good point!

 

wheres grimly and russt?.. :lol:

 

 

outside having a fag? ;)

 

 

 

 

but surely it is too soon for the ban to have taken this degree of effect?

 

I know giving up smoking has a huge effect on your health but can the ban be the sole contributer to this drop?

 

Maybe the wet summer has stooped manic joggers having heart attacks aftyer training in heat?

Maybe last year's figures were a distorted high figure?

Edited September 16, 200717 yr by ICR

outside having a fag? ;)

but surely it is too soon for the ban to have taken this degree of effect?

 

I know giving up smoking has a huge effect on your health but can the ban be the sole contributer to this drop?

 

Maybe the wet summer has stooped manic joggers having heart attacks aftyer training in heat?

Maybe last year's figures were a distorted high figure?

 

Agreed - I'm sure that it has a great effect and I (as a non smoker) do enjoy the smoke free atmosphere in bars, clubs and restaurants; but it just sounds like a government manipulated statement/statistic to me!

outside having a fag? ;)

but surely it is too soon for the ban to have taken this degree of effect?

 

I know giving up smoking has a huge effect on your health but can the ban be the sole contributer to this drop?

 

Maybe the wet summer has stooped manic joggers having heart attacks aftyer training in heat?

Maybe last year's figures were a distorted high figure?

 

I did say in my earlier post that the drop couldn't necessarily be attributed entirely to the smoking ban. However, on your final point, no last year's figure wasn't a peak. The number of heart attacks has been falling for some years. Before this year the figure had been falling by about 3% per year so this year's drop is particularly high.

In my earlier post I wondered about the small number of replies this thread had had. I assumed it was because people prefer to whinge about bad news than even see any good news. I was right. So desperate are they for bad news that Bry and ICR choose not to believe it. It must be Scottish joggers. Ha! Or the figures must have been manipulated. Just enjoy some good news for once! Smoking is catastrophically bad for our bodies in so many ways. Any reduction in smoking is going to lead to improved health figures. Live with it!

scotland went smoke free before us so they have more time to get statistics?...

 

or shall i stand in for scott and claim the statistics can be made to say anything and this result means jack $h!t! lol.

In my earlier post I wondered about the small number of replies this thread had had. I assumed it was because people prefer to whinge about bad news than even see any good news. I was right. So desperate are they for bad news that Bry and ICR choose not to believe it. It must be Scottish joggers. Ha! Or the figures must have been manipulated. Just enjoy some good news for once! Smoking is catastrophically bad for our bodies in so many ways. Any reduction in smoking is going to lead to improved health figures. Live with it!

 

 

Yep thats it - I sit at home desperately waiting for some bad news to fall upon the country. :puke2:

 

No - I just think that 17% is a massive amount and I'm not sure how they can attribute this to the smoking ban so quickly? Surely someone who had been smoking all their life until 2003 (when they could only smoke outside) will be too far along the road to a heart attack?

I am also slightly cynical about government produced statistics for this sort of thing as we do not know exactly how they gained this information etc.

Well it's been 18 months since it was introduced, and apperently in the first 18 months of the ban being inforsed in a town in Colorada in the US, hospital admissions for heart attacks dropped 27%, while Admissions in neighboring towns without smoking bans showed no change. So it is definatly possible.

In my earlier post I wondered about the small number of replies this thread had had. I assumed it was because people prefer to whinge about bad news than even see any good news. I was right. So desperate are they for bad news that Bry and ICR choose not to believe it. It must be Scottish joggers. Ha! Or the figures must have been manipulated. Just enjoy some good news for once! Smoking is catastrophically bad for our bodies in so many ways. Any reduction in smoking is going to lead to improved health figures. Live with it!

 

Sadly my brain doesn't accept bland statistics - blame having an education!

oh and if you had actually ever read any of my posts regarding smoking you would know just how anti smoking I am and how much I would welcome reliable evidence to add to the arguments against smoking.

Unfortunately this statistical change could have many, MANY causes only one of which could be the smoking ban.

 

ok - so we accept that the smoking ban has led to this drop then - for the small proportion of their lives smokers spend in pubs etc, for the added excerise they have had in the walk to the door in order to smoke - this has caused this significant fall?

 

I would be interested to know what proportion of smokers have actually given up because of the ban ...... because no smokers I know have given up, they just sit outside. (although am guessing the winter will encourage them to give up)

 

 

 

Heart disease doesn't develop in a few WEEKS of smoking or inhaling cigarette fumes and so on it takes YEARS, heart attack stats for the smoking ban should not be examined for at least another decade the ban is way too recent for there to be any effect on heart attacks and so on as heart disease develops over years

 

 

Heart disease doesn't develop in a few WEEKS of smoking or inhaling cigarette fumes and so on it takes YEARS, heart attack stats for the smoking ban should not be examined for at least another decade the ban is way too recent for there to be any effect on heart attacks and so on as heart disease develops over years

 

procisely! B)

 

and I don't know anyone who has given up smoking because of the ban, they just sit outside.

In the summer it is quite nice to go outside in your break at work or so on, but I think that it will be a very different story in a few months time :lol:

Well it's been 18 months since it was introduced, and apperently in the first 18 months of the ban being enforced in a town in Colorada in the US, hospital admissions for heart attacks dropped 27%, while admissions in neighboring towns without smoking bans showed no change. So it is definitely possible.

 

 

I guess this is a statistic too. So you won't believe this one either. Were the statistics government ones? Scottish Health Service ones? You don't know because the original post doesn't say. But you've decided they're govt. ones so it's easier to disbelieve them. (I am no truster of statistics or politicians either - believe me!)

 

I think the chief point you are all struggling with is actually just how bad smoking is for you. Health improves immeasurably and immediately someone stops smoking. So you shouldn't be surprised that a smoking ban leads to good news - because it has happened everywhere a smoking ban has been applied.

 

A smoking ban is always good news for the population it is applied to regardless of how manipulative the government who introduces it might be! As I said before - live with it!

I am fully aware of how bad smoking is for me. I understand that if I smoke it will kill me. But I don't smoke because I am aware of that.

Don't tell me to live with it - I am in agreement that the Smoking Ban is really great (especially for non smokers like me) BUT I don't understand how this can take effect so quickly and how they can measure it.

Like already stated, smoking has a long term effect on people and it can't be measured in 18 months.