Ban on Smoking in Public Housing Reduced Cardiovascular Hospitalizations: Study

The investigation found modest declines in heart attacks incidence rates (from 1.7% of residents to 1.1%). It also found small differential declines in strokes (from 1.9% to 1.3%). Hospitalization rates for both heart attacks and strokes in older public housing occupants trended downwards from before to 54 months after the smoking ban.

“Housing remains a focal setting for interventions aimed to reduce adverse health events that may be associated with exposure to secondhand smoke,” said the paper’s lead author, Elle Anastasiou Pesante. “These results are promising, and going forward, we are eager to understand longer term impacts of smoke free policies on cardiovascular and other chronic conditions, particularly among older adults who reside in public housing settings.”

Reference: Elle Anastasiou, Lorna E Thorpe, Katarzyna Wyka, Brian Elbel, Donna Shelley, Sue Kaplan, Jonathan Burke, Byoungjun Kim, Jonathan Newman, Andrea R Titus, Evaluation of Federally Mandated Smoke-Free Housing Policy and Health Outcomes Among Adults Over the Age of 50 in Low-Income, Public Housing in New York City, 2015–2022, Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 2025;, ntaf046, https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntaf046