, an open-access journal, suggests that when Singapore extended the smoking ban in 2013 to communal areas of residential blocks and other outdoor spaces, it prevented as many as 20,000 heart attacks in individuals from the ages of 65 and older.
BMJ noted the researchers as saying that around 1.3 million deaths around the world every year are caused by exposure to second-hand smoke, with many of the deaths caused by heart attacks. The researchers added that the existing evidence on the health benefits of comprehensive smoke-free laws covers mostly smoking bans for indoor spaces instead of housing estates and outdoor spaces.
Before 2013, the number of heart attacks increased by a rate of 0.9 per million people each month. However, this figure dropped to 0.6 per million afterwards. The researchers, therefore, suggest that 2097 additional AMIs could have occurred should the laws not been extended to cover common outdoor spaces.Notably, the monthly decrease in AMI rates for people from the age of 65 and older was nearly 15 times more than for younger people, as seen by the following results 5.