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A new research suggests that bans on smoking can significantly cut down the number of hospitalizations for heart attacks, stroke and respiratory diseases such as asthma and emphysema.

In an analysis which is the largest so far, the American researchers revealed that bans on smoking at workplaces, restaurants and bars, had high health benefits.

For the study, the researchers analyzed 45 studies that covered US and other countries such as New Zealand and Germany, and found that there was a 15 percent decline in hospitalizations after laws on banning were passed in areas such as restaurants, bars and workplaces.

There was a 16 per cent decline in admissions for stroke and a 24 percent decline in admissions for respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Mail Online reported.

Cigarette smoke rapidly changes blood chemistry, making it much more likely to clotting. In people with damaged coronary arteries, smoke can apparently cause a heart attack.

Considerable decline in the number of heart attacks have been noted in England and Scotland, in just a year after imposing bans on smoking, the report said.

However, while smoking is linked to lung diseases almost all the time, there is very less awareness about connection between it and heart attacks.

"The risks of passive smoking on our health are well known and this is the reason smoking legislation was introduced throughout the UK in 2007. Restrictions on smoking in public can help smokers to cut down or quit as well as reducing our exposure to second hand smoke. This study provides encouraging data about the benefits of a smoke-free environment on our heart health and shows that the right decision was made five years ago. If we want this downward trend to continue, policy makers should introduce further measures to reduce the appeal of smoking, such as plain, standardized packaging for tobacco." Maureen Talbot, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), commented on the research.

The research was published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.