NEW YORK, May 15 (UPI) -- New York non-smokers who live with no household or workplace smoke are 2.61 times more likely to report good health than those exposed to smoke.
A first-of-its-kind study surveyed 1,472 Chinese-American adults living in New York City. Forty-three percent of respondents reported a total smoking ban at home and the workplace, 20 percent at work only, 22 percent at home only, and 15 percent reported no smoking restriction at home or work.
Those with a smoking ban at home fared better and were 1.90 times more likely to report better health status than those under no smoking bans, according to the study in the May/June 2007 of the Journal of Urban Health, a bimonthly publication of The New York Academy of Medicine.
Bans on smoking at home may have greater influence on health status than those at work, according to lead author Donna Shelley, of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, in New York City.
Some private apartment buildings are enforcing smoking bans and some public housing associations are considering similar indoor smoking bans.
