The Department of Health have revealed that the number of heart ratesin the UK have reduced by 10% since the indoor smoking ban came into place in July 2007.

The good news isn't confined to England either. Scotland, how had laid claim to being one of the world's heart attack capitals, has seen a heart attack reduction of 14% since their indoor smoking ban which was imposedin 2006, a year earlier than the smoking ban in England.

Researchers expect that over time this heart attack reduction will continue as, they claim, will cancers and other smoking-related diseases.

About 9.4 million adults smoke, with as many as 114,000 dying from smoking-related diseases a year. Heart attack rates are approximately 275,000 per year, with roughly 146,000 deaths per year directly related to cardiac arrest.

The EuroHeart conference in Brussels, Belguim, heard of similar results across Europe after smoking bans. France had a 15% drop in hospital admissions for heart attacks after a year. Italy and Ireland had an 11% reduction in recorded heart attacks.