The short-term impact of smoke-free workplace laws on fatal heart attacks

Using data from across the US, we find that as the number of communities adopting smoking bans in workplaces in a state increases or an entire state goes smoke-free, there are significant reductions in fatal Myocardial Infarctions (MI) among those aged 25–54. The result proves durable, as we subject it to an extensive battery of robustness checks. These results are smaller in magnitude, however, than published case studies analysing the experiences of individual communities passing bans.