Posted on 06/23/2002 9:26:10 PM PDT by chance33_98
Smoking Ban Hurting Tempe Restaurants
Tempe, June 19 (AP) -- It may be a breath of fresh air to walk into restaurants here and not smell smoke, but restaurant and bar owners say they're smothering.
They are asking the City Council to do something to ease the financial pain arising from the new, restrictive anti-smoking ordinance.
A number of owners say revenue is down by as much as 20 percent since the voter-approved ordinance took effect May 30. They plan to outline their concerns during a council meeting Thursday.
"You can either kill yourself with gloom and doom, or you can take the tack that clean air is far better than dirty air," said Lee Fairbanks, who spearheaded the campaign to restrict smoking. "It's healthy, it's better than sitting in a cloud of cancerous smoke."
Since Tempe voters approved the most stringent smoking ban in the area, police have responded to 38 complaints of smokers in bars and restaurants but issued no citations.
For cripes sake, police are now investigation smoking "incidents" in Bars instead of battling real crime. No wonder Klintoon want 100,000 new cops when we didn't need them. Because he needed them to inforce PC law breakers.
Now who was is that said something about tyrannical governments passing enough laws that ALL would be lawbreaking needing oversight from the government??? We're getting there ---- FAST!
If this is true then why is the GOVERNMENT doing the banning in PRIVATE businesses?
You're the one that needs to give it a rest. If they want a smoke-free environment, let them open their own business. When did they get the right to dictate what a private owner does on his private property.
What about the bar and restaurant owners that are smokers???? Several of my friends that own bars and restauratns are themselves smokers. Why do you have the right to tell them they, their employees and their customers can not smoke on their property they have bought and paid for?????
Your sure welcome!!!
It's a good letter too. She said they were sold "a bad bill of goods." They sure were.......... :(
They ALL are!
"Secondhand Smoke Causes Lung Cancer: Experts
Wed Jun 19,10:28 AM ET
By Patricia Reaney
LONDON (Reuters) - Billions of people around the world who are exposed to secondhand smoke may have an increased risk of developing lung cancer because passive smoking causes the disease, health experts said on Wednesday.
A comprehensive review of medical studies by researchers at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) showed passive smoking causes cancer and that chemicals and gases in tobacco contribute to cancer of the stomach, liver, kidney, uterine cervix and to myeloid leukaemia.
"Involuntary smoking--breathing in secondhand smoke--is carcinogenic to humans," said Professor Jonathan Samet, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and a member of the IARC group.
Although the concentrations are not as high, passive smokers are breathing in the same carcinogens as smokers.
"There is elegant evidence ranging from what can be measured in air to what can be measured in the body fluids and urine of non-smokers to show that those carcinogens are being breathed in. They are being absorbed into the body," Samet told a news conference.
"To my knowledge it is the first time an organisation with global sweep has reached that conclusion," he added.
IARC, an extension of the World Health Organisation (WHO), is based in Lyons, France. Its findings on smoking are based on an independent analysis of more than 50 medical studies by 29 experts from 12 countries.
The scientists said they found no increased risk from secondhand smoke for childhood cancers but they did not know what impact long-term exposure to tobacco smoke would have on children as they grow older.
ASTOUNDING PROPORTIONS
An estimated 1.2 billion people worldwide smoke cigarettes, cigars, pipes or bidis--tobacco rolled in a leaf--and expose billions more non-smokers to the carcinogenic chemicals, according to Samet.
Marsha Williams, of the British anti-tobacco campaigning group ASH, called for urgent action.
"Passive smoking is quite clearly more than just the nuisance many of the world's tobacco companies would have us believe. People are harmed and killed by it and it is time industry, government and smokers themselves woke up to this fact," she said in a statement.
The scientists also found evidence that in addition to causing 90% of lung cancer cases, smoking also contributes to cancers of the stomach, liver, kidney, uterine cervix and a type of leukaemia--but that it is not linked to breast or prostate cancer ( news - web sites).
Samet said scientists are only beginning to see the full picture of what happens when a generation begins to smoke at an early age and continues to smoke throughout their adult lives.
"We're still learning about just how damaging cigarette smoking is. We found that cancers beyond those that we had previously listed as caused by smoking can now be added to the list," he said.
Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals in the form of particles and gases. Carbon monoxide, ammonia, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide are among the potentially toxic ones.
About one half of persistent smokers will be killed by a tobacco-related disease and half of those deaths will occur in middle age.
Do you think that the "government" gets up in the morning and brainstorms ideas to stick it to smokers? It is other citizens who are driving their political leaders to give them a rest from all of the smoke in various establishments. And, non-smokers have as much right to a smoke-free environment when the establishment is open to the general public. Non-smokers exist too.
It is done everyday.
No, not really. Any establishment that is open to the general public has to operate under certain guidelines. OSHA regulations are one example of guidelines these establishments have to follow. And secondhand smoke is certainly a health hazard.
Show me where in the US Constitution (or any of the State's Constitutions) where they are granted the power to enforce the whims of those currently in power. Certainly, some states have passed "laws" or even "amendments" that are diametrically opposed to their original constitutions and there has also been much legislating from the bench, however, when viewed in terms of the protection of the rights of the individual (which ALL of our constitutions were created to do), these "laws" actually become "non-laws" as they are clearly UNconstitutional. Democracy is nothing more than mob rule and is EXACTLY why Benjamin Franklin called it the most dangerous form of government he could think of. People such as yourself, on the other hand, seem to have no problem with government enforcing your WISHES or DESIRES at the expense of your neighbors. I fear that by the time you wake up to the dangers of forced political correctness and behavior modification that it will be too late for us all to do anything about it without serious consequences.
They couldn't have the sheeple like you believing that SHS was harmless, so they convened a group of "experts" at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), people whose make their money from being anti-tobacco just a surely as Phillip Morris makes their money selling tobacco, to tell credulous twits like you that it was OK to look down on and abuse 25% of your fellow citizens without giving property owners a CHOICE on whether or not to go smoke-free.
Repeat for emphasis:
IT IS NOT ABOUT SMOKING OR NOT SMOKING! IT IS ABOUT THE RIGHT OF ADULT PROPERTY OWNERS MAKING A PERSONAL DECISION ON WHETHER OR NOT TO ALLOW A LEGAL ACTIVITY ON THEIR OWN PROPERTY!
Get the picture?
Show mw OSHA regulations for ETS (second hand smoke).
I don't think that you can.
This from your own profile...Do you truly believe being a SMOKE NAZI ie: trashing the Constitution, destroying freedom of choice, is not going down the wrong path???
Lets think about this thing for a moment. To me, it would only be common courtesy, i.e. manners, to forego lighting up if doing so would be dangerous, or even objectionable to others. A public place is a public place. A private establishment is still open to the general public. If people exercised common courtesy, this whole conversation would be mute. But, we are no longer a polite or courteous society. That is why laws must be sought to ensure common courtesy. It is stupid, is it not? But, obviously, it has to be done.
Shame on everyone who didn't turn out to vote against this.
The picture is the owner must provide a safe environment for the patrons if he or she will continue to operate a public establishment. I doubt that you would listen to any study by anyone that said that cigarette smoke is dangerous to people who inhale it. To me, that is a no-brainer, regardless of studies. Next, you will be saying that coal miners don't develop black lung fever. Anything that you take into your lungs has an impact. The lungs can cleanse themselves to a certain extent, but a long period of exposure to smoke does take its toll.
You, of course, will provide me with the article or amendment that provides for cigarette smoking as a constitutional right.
Oh, boo hoo. Life isn't fair. People are jackasses. Open your own restaurant, stay home, or stop your whining.
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