Smoking Ban Health Hype Going Up in Smoke

Reporters are covering stories that link smoking bans to lower heart attack rates—which would be terrific news if it were true, Christopher Snowdon writes on Spiked. Even the anti-smoking group Action on Smoking and Health stood up to a Sunday Times report of a "10% heart attack drop," saying it had no foundation in science. A BBC report claiming even better numbers was based on three studies, and amusing ones at that.

The studies either side-stepped the awkward fact that heart attacks had gone up in cities after smoking bans, or they found a laughably high 40% plunge. For harder data, Snowdon writes, look at hospitals, which have seen no drop in England, Scotland, and Wales after anti-smoking legislation. But "it may be too late for the anti-smoking lobby to back down on this issue," writes Snowdon. "Too many reputations are at stake." (More smoking stories.)