Replies

Hi SheLion,

Here is a little letter I just sent to the people who were some of the decision makers for the Highland Park ban. We might as well let the people responsible know how we feel too. I take a special interest, as I live about 20 minutes away from Highland Park. (It used to be only 10 minutes, but that was before traffic got so bad out here...)

----- Original Message -----
From: Garnet Dawn
To: sfaiwell@dailyherald.com ; cityhall@cityhpil.com ; maribarnes@thecustomframer.com ; mrboating@aol.com ; chamber@ehighlandpark.com ; cityclerk@cityofchicago.org
Sent: Friday, June 03, 2005 7:33 PM
Subject: SMOKE BAN BEGINS - Highland Park

Highland Park City Hall
1707 St Johns Ave
Highland Park, IL 60035

Highland Park Chamber of Commerce
508 Central Avenue, Suite 206
Highland Park, IL 60035
Phone 847-432-0284

RE: SMOKE BAN BEGINS - Highland Park http://www.dailyherald.com/search/searchstory.asp?id=56372

Dear Mayor Belsky, Councilman Brenner, Councilwoman Barnes and the Highland Park Chamber of Commerce:

cc: Mayor Richard M. Daley, Chicago cityclerk@cityofchicago.org
Sahah Fairwell, Staff Reporter, Daily Herald, sfaiwell@dailyherald.com

I am a neighbor who resides in Lake Bluff, and I have frequently spent afternoons shopping and meeting friends for lunch in Highland Park. However, now that Highland Park has enacted this smoking ban, I will never again spend a single penny in your city. I will go elsewhere. The majority of restaurants were already non-smoking and this legislation was unwarranted and not necessary.

You have allowed yourselves to be influenced by anti-smoking special interest groups, and I doubt if the smoking ban in your city would have been approved so easily if both the Illinois Senate and House had not just passed the Clean Air Act - Home Rule. You are intentionally hurting Highland Park small business owners who are also voters.

Even though passive smoke it is now called a health hazard in many circles, not one study has ever been able to supports these claims. Inescapable vehicle emissions or the smog alerts we have to endure every year are the real health hazards. Non-smokers were never forced to ferret out the few places that still allowed smoking in your city.

Are any of you aware that the commonly used statistic that second hand smoke kills 53,000 (or more) people in this country every year came from Stanton Glantz, not the CDC or EPA? http://forces.org/research/files/acs.htm

"Glantz was the real source behind the widely quoted statistic 53,000 second-hand-smoke-related-deaths per year. The EPA denied it, after the CDC released it to a couple of Florida newspapers. The number was never retracted..." See http://www.illinoissmokersrights.com/stanton_glantz_doctor_of_what.html

One last piece of interesting information about Dr. Glantz , the trusted source who initiated all the second hand smoke claims, is that he does not have his Ph.D. in a field even related to health. His title originates from a Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering!

I hope the Highland Park officials who passed this ban will live to regret it and then will repeal it, as so many other municipalities across the country have done.

Sincerely,

Garnet Dawn
XXXXXXXXXX
Lake Bluff, IL
XXXXXXXXXXX
______________________________
Garnet Dawn - The Smoker's Club, Inc. - Midwest Regional Director
The United Pro Choice Smokers Rights Newsletter - http://www.smokersclubinc.com
Illinois Smokers Rights - http://www.illinoissmokersrights.com/
mailto:garnetdawn@comcast.net - Respect Freedom of Choice!