Many European countries have passed anti-smoking legislation
which bans smoking from restaurants, bars and public buildings.
After implementation of such a smoking ban on 1 January 2008 in
the metropolitan area of Bremen in northwest Germany (800,000
inhabitants) a 16% decline in ST-elevation myocardial infarction
(STEMI) was observed. STEMI is the severest form of myocardial
infarction. For the study, 3,545 STEMIs in the Bremen-STEMI-
Registry which occurred between 2006 and 2010 were analyzed.
Figure 1 shows the average number of STEMIs per month in the
total population, smokers and non-smokers in 2006-2007 and
2008-2010. Dr Schmucker said: “There were more non-smokers than
smokers, which explains why the non-smokers group had more
STEMIs registered.” Figure 1: Average number of STEMIs per month
in the total population, smokers and non-smokers in 2006-2007
and 2008-2010. For the total population in 2006 and 2007, before
the smoking ban was passed, averages of 65 STEMIs were
registered per month. In 2008 to 2