According to a report issued today by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), smoking bans in restaurants, workplaces, and other public please have reduced the risk of heart disease in non-smokers.

The report was requested by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who asked the institute to convene a committee to look at the effects of secondhand smoke on the heart. Specifically, the CDC asked that the committee look at the association between secondhand-smoke exposure and cardiovascular disease, the association between secondhand-smoke exposure and acute coronary events like heart attacks, and the association between smoking bans and heart attacks.

After reviewing several studies, the committee concluded that exposure to secondhand smoke increases the risk of heart disease and that exposure to secondhand smoke increases the risk of heart attacks. The committee also found that these risks declined dramatically (from 6 to 46 percent) when smoking bans were enacted – a conclusion they were able to make by comparing rates of heart attacks among non-smokers before and after bans were put into place.