Are smoking bans really helping in improving the "mortality rate of America"? According to RAND Corporation researcher Kanaka Shetty, NO! In fact the studies show in some places there was a drop in incident mortality and/or hospital admissions for myocardial infarction.

Menthol Cigarettes, Possible Ban In Sight
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So this whole story on "second hand smoke, "MAY" have been a smoke screen after all...or not. The way I look at it (and I am by far no expert) is that the cigarette goes through the filter on the end then into my lungs where its filtered even more then it's out into the environment, where my next unsuspecting victim is. Now mind you I am the worst on this subject because I am a former smoker and I am not nice by any means, for example nearly the entire sales staff smokes and the other day they

A Woman Blowing Smoke
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were hanging out "RIGHT IN FRONT" of the front door. I was ready to let the air out of their cars tires if they did not move. Then I was gonna call the cops to have them all cited and they couldn't get away cause their cars were all flat. fortunately for them they broke up their smoking huddle.  Here is what the study revealed.

Judging from the first nationwide study of the question, reported in the November Journal of Policy Analysis andManagement, that is exactly what ban boosters have done. “In contrast with smaller regional studies,” write RAND Corporation researcher Kanaka Shetty and three co-authors, “we find that smoking bans are not associated

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mayor Bloomberg Proposes Extending Smoking Ban To Public Parks And Beaches
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with statistically significant short-term declines in mortality or hospital admissions for myocardial infarction or other diseases.” In fact, “An analysis simulating smaller studies using subsamples reveals that large short-term increases in myocardial infarction incidence following a smoking ban are as common as the large decreases reported in the published literature.”

In other words, although heart attacks do decline in some places with smoking bans, there are just as many places where they rise. On average, the difference between jurisdictions with smoking bans and jurisdictions without smoking bans is essentially zero.

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