Posted on 01/21/2007 5:56:10 AM PST by NJRighty
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Thirty years after it began as just another quirky movement in Berkeley, Calif., the push to ban smoking in restaurants, bars and other public places has reached a national milestone.
For the first time in the nation's history, more than half of Americans live in a city or state with laws mandating that workplaces, restaurants or bars be smoke-free, according to Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights.
''The movement for smoke-free air has gone from being a California oddity to the nationwide norm,'' said Bronson Frick, the group's associate director. ''We think 100 percent of Americans will live in smoke-free jurisdictions within a few years.''
Seven states and 116 communities enacted tough smoke-free laws last year, bringing the total number to 22 states and 577 municipalities, according to the group. Nevada's ban, which went into effect Dec. 8, increased the total U.S. population covered by any type of smokefree law to 50.2 percent.
It was the most successful year for anti-smoking advocates in the U.S., said Frick, and advocates are now working with local and state officials from across the nation on how to bring the other half of the country around.
In a sign of the changing climate, new U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi banned smoking in the ornate Speaker's Lobby just off the House floor this month, and the District of Columbia recently barred it in public areas. Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Louisiana and New Jersey also passed sweeping anti-smoking measures last year.
(Excerpt) Read more at kpic.com ...
Hell, no.
It happens in February, or it doesn't happen at all
A 70-year tradition down the tubes due to hysteria, political correctness, and empowerment of guns of government by anti-smokers.
Too bad.
My "crayons" have been handed in as per your request.
DONT DRINK THE WATER.
Your post was almost understandable. A 3 year old wrote it however again. Air is air, water is water, Don't foul my air with your smoke and I won't pi$$ in your water, We all need to take care of each other, respect the other person, however again if you want to smoke in my air, beware..........
I smoked for 40 years and I now understand what I did to myself and what I hope no one inflicts it on me nor will I inflict it on another.
However please understand as an ex smoker I know your addictions, I know what nicotine did to you and I understand. Argue as hard as you want.
Light another, puff deep, inhale so you feel the tobacco make it mark on the throat.
Be considerate and do not inflict it on another person.
Hard head! No wonder you are single.
Most people didnt have this attitude 20 years ago. Unless you did, than you are an unwitting victim of a multi-billion dollar, decades long PR campaign. Smoking was just one of many vices, a bad habit. It wasnt enough for anti-smoking advocates to simply state that tobacco smokers were hurting themselves and encourage them to quit. It didnt work well enough. To truly discourage smoking and reduce smoking rates, smokers had to be portrayed as not only hurting their own health, but those around them. Incite hatred from non smokers. How? The invention of the Second Hand Smoke fraud.
Dont just take my word for it. Read the anti-tobacco playbook for yourself:
http://www.forces.org/writers/kjono/pdf/tfw222.pdf
By 1998, sites will substantially increase and strengthen public support for policies which a) mandate clean indoor air; b) restrict access to tobacco by minors; c)increase economic incentives and taxations to discourage the use of tobacco products; and d) restrict the advertising of tobacco.
What does mandating clean indoor air have to do with reducing smoking rates and getting smokers to quit?
Answer: Absolutely nothing except to accomplish the other objectives
Over a decade of research by the National Cancer Institute has shown that the most effective way to reduce smoking rates is to decrease public tolerance of tobacco use through changes in policy, accompanied by media and educational programs.
Changing the public acceptance of tobacco use will require policy change, a critical ingredient of societal change.
Social change also requires that people receive consistent and persistent messages from sources they trust. This this end, ASSIST funds will generate a a variety of media messages that foster and strengthen public support for proposed policy changes.
The recent release of the EPA report on ETS provides the necessary justification to potential opposition, i.e. restaurant owners, small business owners, and smokers for requiring workplaces to eliminate the health hazard of ETS in the workplace.
In 1998, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) spurious claims about Environmental Tobacco Smoke were eviscerated by a U.S. District Court judge.
2.3 Excerpts from Judge Osteens July 18, 1998, 90 page-plus Memorandum Opinion appear below:
a.) On page 73 Judge Osteen specifically referenced EPAs use of a 90 percent confidence level in place of the customary 95 percent:
The first contention is EPA switched, without explanation, from using standard 95% confidence intervals to 90% confidence intervals to enhance the likelihood that its meta-analysis would appear statistically significant. This shift assisted EPA in obtaining statistically significant results. Studies that are not statistically significant are "null studies"; they cannot support a Group A classification. See Brock v. Merrell Dow Pharm., Inc., 874 F.2d 307, 312 (5th Cir. 1989) ("If the confidence interval is so great that it includes the number 1.0, then the study will be said to show no statistically significant 'association between the factor and the disease."). EPA used a 95% confidence interval in the 1990 Draft ETS Risk Assessment, but later switched to a 90% confidence interval. Most prominently, this drew criticism from IAQC's epidemiologist, who was also a contributor to the ETS Risk Assessment: The use of 90% confidence intervals, instead of the conventionally used 95% confidence intervals, is to be discouraged. It looks like a[n] attempt to achieve statistical significance for a result which otherwise would not achieve significance. (Underline added.)
b.) On page 72 Judge Osteens conclusions included a statement that EPA cherry-picked data:
EPA's study selection is disturbing. First, there is evidence in the record supporting the accusation that EPA "cherry picked" its data. Without criteria for pooling studies into a meta- analysis, the court cannot determine whether the exclusion of studies likely to disprove EPA's a priori hypothesis was coincidence or intentional. Second, EPA's excluding nearly half of the available studies directly conflicts with EPA's purported purpose for analyzing the epidemiological studies and conflicts with EPA's Risk Assessment Guidelines. See ETS Risk Assessment at 4-29 ("These data should also be examined in the interest of weighing all the available evidence, as recommended by EPA's carcinogen risk assessment guidelines (U.S. EPA, 1986a) (emphasis added)). Third, EPA's selective use of data conflicts with the Radon Research Act. The Act states EPA's program shall "gather data and information on all aspects of indoor air quality.
c.) On page 60 Judge Osteen concluded that it was possible EPA adopted different methodologies for each chapter based on the outcome desired:
The court is faced with the ugly possibility that EPA adopted a methodology for each chapter, without explanation, based on the outcome sought in that chapter. This possibility is most potent where EPA rejected MS-ETS similarities to avoid a "cigarette-equivalents" analysis in determining carcinogenicity of ETS exposure. Use of cigarette-equivalents analysis may have lead to a conclusion that ETS is not a Group A carcinogen." It is striking that MS and ETS were similar only where such a conclusion promoted finding ETS a carcinogen. (Underline added.)
Does this sound like a Free Republic to you?
http://www.forces.org/writers/kjono/pdf/tfw222.pdf
direct working link to page 27 of the playbook.
Where'd you get that idea, AH? Down at the weekly meeting of the hive?
if you want to smoke in my air, beware..........
The most meaningless threat ever issued.
GFYS
You're as Constitionally dumb as the day is long. Are you a politician? Seriously? Blackbird.
LMAO! If that means what I think it means. Blackbird.
It does.
Look lady, the event is held in February because all the hunting is over by January and the fishing starts in March.
Also, I'm only 1 vote out of 11.
Also, we see no reason to kowtow to a bunch of lifestyle Nazis that are busy sucking all the joy out of life.
You don't need to tell me about hunting or fishing I have done it all. The wild game is in the freezer NOW and it *could* remain there until summer. You can make of this situation what you want to. If I was doing it I would want to out smart the people who told me we couldn't smoke by having it outside where they had no control. But you would rather cancel the event and then carp constantly and *forever* about how "WE WAS CHEATED!" I would rather cheat them than have them cheat me.
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