The graph above charts the rate of heart attack admissions (acute myocardial infarction) in England over the past few years. The arrow points to July 1, 2007, when England implemented its smoking ban in pubs and restaurants. To the untrained eye it may appear that the ban had no discernible impact on the rate of heart attacks. Ah, but to the trained eye of an anti-tobacco activist this graph demonstrates that smoking bans save lives. Hence the headlines in the British press this week declaring the ban a roaring success: “At least 1,200 heart attacks were prevented in England in the year after the ban’s introduction,” reports The Daily Mail. Critics of the nanny state “get their comeuppance with research showing that nannying works,” says the Independent. Even the usually savvy Economist lauds the study as proof that owners of private places should have no right to allow smoking on their premises.

The dubious credit for turning this unremarkable decline into front page news goes to Dr. Anna Gilmore at the University of Bath. Her own data show no apparent impact from the smoking ban. The number of heart attack admissions in each year is copied here along with rates of decline calculated by journalist Christopher Snowdon: