People with no risk factors for heart disease can still experience heart attacks. An Indiana University study found that after a countywide smoking ban was implemented, hospital admissions for such heart attacks dropped 70 percent for non-smokers — but not for smokers.

The study, published in the latest Journal of Drug Education, was the first to examine the effect of public smoking bans on heart attacks in non-smokers. Previous studies did not distinguish between non-smokers and smokers when examining the effect of the bans or specifically look at non-smokers who had no risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol or previous heart surgery.

Researchers examined hospital admissions for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in Monroe County, Ind., and Delaware County, Ind..  The study compared the two counties in addition to analyzing the 35,482 hospital admissions in Monroe county 22 months before and 22 months after the initial smoking ban was adopted. In Monroe County, there was a 70 percent drop in the number of hospital admissions for AMI among non-smoking patients with no history of heart disease, compared to an 11 percent drop in Delaware County. This translates into a 59 percent net decrease in the number of non-smoking patient admissions for heart attacks after the Monroe County public smoking ban was enforced