Here we go with those FIGURES again!
SHOW ME THE DEATH CERTIFICATES PLEASE!
Where to begin?
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has classified secondhand smoke as a Group A carcinogen
And the federal judiciary system has already called them on this little "fact".
Each year, secondhand smoke in the United States is responsible for an estimated 35,000 to 40,000 deaths from heart disease in people who are not smokers. It's also to blame for about 3,000 lung cancer deaths in nonsmoking adults, and 150,000 to 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections in children younger than 18 months of age, the American Cancer Society says.
Here we go with the figures but no supporting evidence, much less proof!
The 1986 Surgeon General's Report on The Health Consequences of Involuntary Smoking declared that secondhand smoke causes disease, including lung cancer, in healthy nonsmokers.
Again, where is the proof? And what about the lung cancer for people that are NOT smokers or exposed to ETS. Where does THAT come from? Enquiring minds want to know.
The U.S. Surgeon General's report also found that separating smokers and nonsmokers within the same air space may reduce, but does not eliminate, the exposure to nonsmokers of secondhand smoke.
DUHH... Exposure does NOT mean harm.
I remember standing outside Atlanta's airport one day between flights having a smoke and sharing an ashtray with another pax - who'd tried to light up in one of the airport's many BARS. Informed that the bars were non-smoking, the guy came outside - sans drink - to light up. He said he told the barkeep,
"If I can't smoke, WHY WOULD I WANT TO DRINK??"
Michael
What she really means is:
If I can't won't enjoy a cup of coffee with a cigarette, I won't can't go out to eat,"
That's the typical way selfish, inconsiderate smokers show their strong support for unwitting property owners and their "rights".
Hypocrites.
And a federal court overturned it in 1998, because the EPA violated their own rules and regulations as well as violating the Radon ACT.
If I was the tribe leader I would tell Del. to go suck it.
And one thing I do not understand, since Reservations are NOT subject to US law, why do they need permission to open casinos on their land?
Let's incorporate a sin tax for junk food since it's recently been made known that obesity is as high a risk for health problems as smoking.
Maybe restaurants and bars should add a surcharge to the bills of overweight people who come in, especially if they have thoses "all you can eat" buffet tables.
Oh, and let's apply a higher tax to activities such as bungee jumping, ATV riding, skiing, etc. because when devotees of these pasttimes get in accidents, they miss work and that adds to the cost of doing business, don't you know. Plus, if they are permanently disabled, then they can get SSI and that affects other taxpayers.
Dennis Thompson is being disingenuous with his use of statistics regarding SHS. If Thompson is a real reporter, he KNOWS that the EPA study classifying Second Hand Smoke as a Group A carcinogen has been vacated by a Federal Judge whose decision can be read in its entirety here: http://www.forces.org/evidence/epafraud/files/osteen.htm.
The American Cancer Society knows this also but has so far refused to remove the figures of the EPA study from their website even though a court has adjudicated them false.
Mr. Thompson also relies on the 1986 Surgeon General's Report on The Health Consequences of Involuntary Smoking which itself used the same unscientific methodology as the EPA and has since been discredited by the 1996 World Health Organizations SHS report, the largest study of its kind ever, which comes to the exact opposite conclusion
If a publication such as yours is striving for acceptance as an honest voice in the health care field, you should have the integrity to print the truth and not the half-baked claims of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation or people who simply don't like smoking.
Thank you,
metesky
Moosegrin Falls, Maine
(Real name and address deleted to protect the guilty.)
California already has banned smoking in these places. In fact some cities, such as Palo Alto, have ordinances banning smoking within 20 feet of the entrance to a business establishment.