Press Release

Visiting M.D. to Report on the Effect of a Public Smoking Ban on Heart Attack Rates in Helena, Mont.

Columbia, Mo (February 14, 2007) -- Richard P. Sargent, vice Chairman of the Montana Tobacco Advisory Board, will present his findings on the reduction in heart attacks associated with the Helena, Montana Clean Indoor Air Ordinance to the Department of Family and Community Medicine. The grand rounds talk "Secondhand Smoke is an Acute Issue" will take place at 12:00 noon, Wednesday, February 14, 2007 at the University of Missouri, School of Nursing, Room S342.

The event is sponsored by Campus-Community Alliances for Smoke-Free Environments (CASE), a group of of leading researchers and experts on the health effects of secondhand smoke.

Dr. Sargent is in private practice at the Family Health Clinic in Helena, Montana, and lead the effort to pass Helena's Clean Indoor Air Ordinance in 2002. He was a spokesman for the tobacco control initiative in 2002 and tobacco tax initiative in 2004. He has previously presented his findings to the American College of Cardiology Scientific Assembly in April, 2003 and published the final article "Reduced incident of admissions for myocardial infarction associated with public smoking ban: before and after study" in the British Medical Journal in April, 2004. He has also spoken on the Health Effects of Second hand Smoke, Economic Effects of Clean Indoor Air Ordinances, Cessation Methods, Tobacco Use in Pregnancy, Fetal Effects of Tobacco Exposure, and Tobacco Use in Mental Illness. Together with his co-author Dr. Robert Shepard, he has given presentations on secondhand smoke in 25 states. In September, 2006, Dr. Sargent and Dr. Shepard received the American Cancer Society's highest award for advocacy, the Ted Marrs Award, at the ACS Celebration on the Hill in Washington, DC. Dr. Sargent has been in private practice in Helena, Montana for the past sixteen years, and chairman of Quality Assurance for six of those years. He is married and has three children.

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