Banning smoking in public places like bars and restaurants has resulted in lessening the number of hospital admissions for heart attacks. This was found by researchers at Edinburgh University who, after examining the after effects of banned smoking in New Zealand, concluded that patients at 55-74 years of age, who were admitted to the hospital following heart strokes, sliced by 9%. The results were cited in Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.

The research also concluded that the risk of heart attacks resulting in hospital admissions for the non-smokers elevated to 13% for the same age group.

The ban therefore was found to reduce the number of strokes in patients to 5% in the three years after the implementation of ban. Smoking publically was made illegal in Scotland in 2006 including all workplaces.

Ex-smokers were found to be lessening the number of hospitalizations and it was less in men than women, the research found.

Elaborating on the research, Dr Jamie Pearce, of Edinburgh University's school of Geosciences said that this study highlights that banning smoking was connected to decline in intense heart attacks.

Dr Jamie said, "However, more work is needed to look at the effects of the ban in greater detail".