Miracle Or Mirage

2 Pages 608 Words

Miracle or Mirage
Could the Miracle of Helena really be the Mirage of Helena? A prominent editor for the New York Times has hailed the original article as The Miracle of Helena, while urging readers to give the article way more credit than it deservers.
According to an article written by Steven Milloy, on Friday October 17, 2003; (The known publisher of Junk Science.Com and known scholar and published author) The Second Hand Smoke Scam. Milloy claims there is not enough factual evidence to support the theory that the ban on smoking in Helena was associated with the drop in heart attack patient admissions at the local hospital.
In 2002 the citizens of Helena opted to ban smoking in all public buildings. After a six-month period the ban was rescinded. During the six-month period doctors at a local hospital reported that heart attack patient admissions had dropped. Then after the ban was rescinded the admissions of heart attack patients rebounded to the pre-ban levels.
Milloy states there was simply no study to account for heart attack rates dropping due to the smoking ban. Since there had been a similar drop four years prior in 1998. This drop was unrelated to a smoking ban.
This study was not easy to evaluate because there was no study. The results were a slide show presentation at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology and six months later no study has been released to the public. So how did the editor at the New York Times get his facts?
Given the fact there were no medical test done on any of the heart attack patients admitted prior to, during, or after the smoking ban it would be impossible to determine whether or not the attacks were caused by second hand smoke, genetics, life style, or environmental factors. Therefore to say that the drop in heart attack patients during the ban was due to second hand smoke would be outrageous.
This seems to be more of a mirage of Helena than a miracle of Helena. Dr. Stan ...