Study: Smoking ban beneficial

Publication Date: 2010-01-19

• Author:MICHELLE HILLENBRAND
• Publication:UI The Daily Iowan

A little more than a year and a half after Iowa's Smokefree Air Act took effect, one UI professor is aiming to verify that a smoke free environment will continue to benefit the local community.

A recent study from the UI and the Iowa Department of Public Health shows a 24 percent decrease in Iowa hospital admissions for coronary heart disease and a decrease in admissions for heart attacks and strokes since the state restricted smoking.

Christopher Squier, a UI professor in the oral pathology, radiology, and medicine department and the main author of the study, said he forsees a healthier future.

He thinks Iowa hospitals will continue to see fewer patients with smoke-related heart problems, he said. Because the ban is relatively new and smoking or exposure to smoke often takes 20 years to cause cancer, there may be other long-term effects of the ban, he said.