The report found that hospitals admitted 3,813 fewer patients for heart attacks in 2004 than would be expected in the Big Apple without the indoor smoking ban. This is consistent with the results of similar studies elsewhere.
The study was released Thursday and published in The American Journal of Public Health credits the state's 2003 Clean Indoor Air Act for decreasing the likelihood of heart attacks statewide and for giving New Yorkers cleaner indoor air.
The study examined results from every hospital in the state except those that are federally run. It also tracked other variables that contributed to reducing heart attacks and isolated the results related to secondhand smoke, reports MSNBC.
Harlan Juster, who led the study, said the scale of the research is much larger than any study done before.
"Where they looked at a few hospitals, we looked at all hospitals in New York State that are required to report," he said.
The researchers also reviewed information from a 10-year span starting before the statewide smoking ban took effect. They found that regulations by local governments that preceded the statewide ban also contributed to a downward trend for heart attacks.
However, critics are skeptical.
Michael Seigel, a professor at Boston University's Social and Behavioral Sciences Department who reviews tobacco policies for the school, including smoking bans, questioned the conclusions of the New York study based on its limited scope.
He said it couldn't be concluded that the lowered incidence was due to the smoking ban.
"It's possible that decline was happening everywhere, and without assessing data from every state, there's no way to know," said Siegel, who has testified in New York City, Connecticut and Massachusetts about the value of indoor smoking bans.
The U.S. Surgeon General reported last year that nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke increase their risk of developing heart disease and lung cancer by up to 30 percent.
There is scientific consensus that exposure to secondhand smoke causes disease, disability and death. Secondhand smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals. Nonsmokers are exposed to the same carcinogens as active smokers.
In addition to lung cancer, secondhand smoke is proven to cause heart disease, emphysema, and other illnesses and is responsible nationally for thousands of deaths each year.
