According to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, banning smoking in public places can reduce heart attacks by up to 40% in the short term. Previous studies have already shown that people exposed to second-hand smoke have an increased risk of heart attack by as much as 30%.

An observation carried out on residents of the US town of Helena, where there was an absolute ban on smoking in public places for six months. During the six months, the town's hospital usually admitted around 40 people with a heart attack, but this number decreased to 24 during the observation period. No similar trends were observed among residents of the surrounding towns. According to the researchers, these results suggest that a total ban on smoking in public places not only protects against the long-term negative effects of passive smoking, but may also have immediate benefits in terms of a decrease in heart attacks.