To Speaker Howell (RE: Tabling the Restaurant Smoking Ban): You should be ashamed of yourself. Through your inaction, you will cause the deaths of thousands of innocent Virginians. These people will not die as a result of their own decision, but from the reckless decisions of others.Why would you decide to kill the smoking ban? Did the $250,000 from RJ Reynolds to GOP Delegates help with your decision? How about the $230,000 from US Tobacco? Or was it the $150,000 from both S & M Brand and Altria that finally cemented in your decision?
To RK Readers: You can read for yourself what the speaker did when he undemocratically decided to kill the restaurant smoking ban that was passed recently in the State Senate (DailyPress.com).
As for the effects of Mr. Howell's shameless acts, there are listed below (Source: American Lung Association):
Secondhand smoke has been classified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a known cause of cancer in humans (Group A carcinogen).Secondhand smoke causes approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths and 35,000 heart disease deaths in adult nonsmokers in the United States each year.
A study found that nonsmokers exposed to environmental smoke were 25 percent more likely to have coronary heart diseases compared to nonsmokers not exposed to smoke.4
Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at work are at increased risk for adverse health effects. Levels of ETS in restaurants and bars were found to be 2 to 5 times higher than in residences with smokers and 2 to 6 times higher than in office workplaces.Since 1999, 70 percent of the U.S. workforce worked under a smoke-free policy, ranging from 83.9 percent in Utah to 48.7 percent in Nevada. Workplace productivity was increased and absenteeism was decreased among former smokers compared with current smokers.
Secondhand smoke is especially harmful to young children. Secondhand smoke is responsible for between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections in infants and children under 18 months of age, resulting in between 7,500 and 15,000 hospitalizations each year, and causes 1,900 to 2,700 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) deaths in the United States annually.
Secondhand smoke exposure may cause buildup of fluid in the middle ear, resulting in 700,000 to 1.6 million physician office visits per year. Secondhand smoke can also aggravate symptoms in 200,000 to 1,000,000 children with asthma.
Shame on our shameless legislators. Some day (in the not too distant future, I hope) Virginians will be ashamed of having been so far behind on simple health measures like this. When that day comes, let's all remember and point with shame at the sleazy weasels who voted against this legislation in February 2006!
I saw his swearing in, and his talks afterwards. Almost everything he said was a lie.
What does that make him?
How is it not their decision? If they decide to go to a bar where people smoke, it is their decision.
I don't see where your info on young children has any bearing at all to the discussion of this bill. Smoking is already not allowed in day care centers, schools, libraries, etc. where children are expected to frequent. If parents want to take their children to a place where people smoke, that's their decision, not politicians'.
If businesses want to ban smoking in their establishment, they are completely free to do so.
If people want to work in a smoke-free environment, they are completely free to do so.
What exactly would this bill have done other than intrude on the rights of private business owners?
Also, some good links posted on just how trustworthy the EPA stats may be were posted on Waldo's site by Brian J. Geiger:
These people will not die as a result of their own decision, but from the reckless decisions of others
How is it not their decision? If they decide to go to a bar where people smoke, it is their decision.
I don’t see where your info on young children has any bearing at all to the discussion of this bill. Smoking is already not allowed in day care centers, schools, libraries, etc. where children are expected to frequent. If parents want to take their children to a place where people smoke, that’s their decision, not politicians’.
If businesses want to ban smoking in their establishment, they are completely free to do so.
If people want to work in a smoke-free environment, they are completely free to do so.
What exactly would this bill have done other than intrude on the rights of private business owners?
Also, some good links posted on just how trustworthy the EPA stats may be were posted on Waldo’s site by Brian J. Geiger:
http://www.pipes.org/Articles/second_hand_science.html
http://www.pipes.org/Articles/Bliley.html
(I can see George Bush saying -- "but they can go to an Ivy League school like I did and get ahead on their own merits!")
Also, I've had the experience of thinking I was in an unpolluted restaurant, and all of a sudden a table or two finishes and everyone lights up.
Lucy, I don't think you have a heart. Too bad. And you're quoting from a pro-smoking website, www.pipes.org? TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR. Doctors are usually Republicans, ya know. And a lot of them are pretty right wing. Talk to THEM about smoking.
(from another blog) At 2/02/2006 9:49 PM, Lucy Jones said...
Yea!!! A fellow smoker and real person!!!!
Quit now. Or wait until a doc tells you that you have pre-cancerous cells in your esophagus like mine did. And in my case, if it developed into cancer there it was inoperable. Sorry to be mean to you, but you are addicted and you are killing yourself, slowly but surely.
And quit the political posing on this issue. You're in denial.
And quit the political posing on this issue. You’re in denial.
Dearest Pete,
You have got to be joking! No heart? Posing?? I am a single mom. I have worked at least one full time job since the day I turned 15 years old. I worked at Shoney's, Pantry Pride and People's drug store (all at the same time) for 6 years to put myself through a few night classes at VCU just to get out of the rut. In the last 18 months, I have emptied my savings account to pay the bills and medical expenses for a single mom family in my neighborhood whose son was killed in a car accident. I personally paid the winter utility bills of two other families in my neighborhood who couldn't afford to keep their children warm. All of this was done anonymously. And that is just the beginning. I give until it hurts!
Do not tell me I don't have a heart. You have no clue!!!
Poser??? If I would like to go to dinner or go out and listen to some good music in a bar every once in a blue moon and enjoy a cigarette then why do you or the government feel the need tell me I can't? I don't tell other people what to do and the gov't has no right to tell a private business that they can't allow me to smoke a cigarette.
There are many, many ways to earn an honest living. If you don't want to work in a smoking establishment, you don't have to.
If you want to comment on the issues, go right ahead... but Poser and Heartless are two names I will never earn.
You are unbelievable!
Agreed. Ventilation requirements would be fine with me too. While we're sucking out the smoke, we might actually suck out some of the junk the cars and factories are blowing out as well.
No, I'm no where near libertarian. The Republicans don't claim me half the time. Neither do the Democrats. I guess I'm a misfit...
Drinking alcohol and driving a vehicle is illegal. I would think smoking asbestos would be illegal but if it's not you can smoke asbestos and spew the fumes at people as long as you do it in a place where it's known to be allowed and I have a choice not to go there.
Smoking cigarettes is not illegal. Smoking in allowed areas is not behaving recklessly and without consideration. If the gov't wants to make it illegal then they should do that instead of trying to tell private businesses when they can allow it.
I have absolutely no problem with the government banning smoking, drinking, indecent exposure, etc. at places designed predominately for children or where citizens have little choice but to go. I don't want my children around that sort of thing any more than you do. These are places like groceries stores, banks, child care centers, hospitals, schools, even baseball games. You really don't have much choice about these places. But when it comes to bars and restraunts, it's another story. Adults go to bars. Adults choose which restraunts to take their children to and there are many, many choices on where to eat. Business owners are completely free to make their establishment smoke-free. Fudruckers, Chuckie Cheese, Arbys, McDonalds, Burger King, Skating Rinks; all are smoke-free and all do just fine. And there are many small restaurants that are smoke free (especially in Richmond!).
For me, it's all about LEGAL choices. If a business wants to allow smoking and patrons are aware that smoking is allowed, the government should not intervene. Business owners should be allowed to provide whatever [legal] services they want to. Consumers should be able to decide where they spend their money. Government has no place in private business and government has no place in my home (i.e. don't tell me what religion I can practice, don't tell me who my family members are, etc.).
Now, for workers... I am probably so liberal here, you will be amazed! My more conservative Republican friends are ready to oust me from the party for this one...
I tend to think that anyone who works should be able to
1) afford to live in a decent home or apartment,
2) feed themselves,
3) afford health care,
4) afford decent education
These are what I consider "basic rights".
I mean no matter where you work. If you work at Wall-mart, Kmart, McDonald's, etc. and you put in your 40-50-60 hours week, you deserve to be able to live. I'm not saying that lazy people should be paid to lay around on their duff. I'm talking about honest, hard-working people.
I know there are problems with a mandated living wage. I know it would cause hardships on small business. I know it would cause other more-skilled workers to need higher wages. I am aware of all those implications. But why is it ok to have businesses (especially large ones) that don't include fair wages in their overhead? In the past there were many places you could work where you could get by without a higher education (you really still can if you are able to work more than one job and really hussle) but with the costs of healthcare, clothing, food and other "basic needs" rising so much quicker than wages, it's becoming more impossible to live on minimum wage. I think large companies are setting the example by making the bottom line more important than the people who work for them. To me, something is wrong when a huge company is showing milions/billions of profits and their employees don't have healthcare and can't afford to live. Virginia is pushing especially hard to get more and more high-skilled jobs (technology) and the uneducated are finding it nearly impossible to survive. I truly believe this needs to be looked at. If Virginia wants to have this highly skilled workforce then it's going to have to figure out a way for everyone to get the education to be able to work the jobs. And it's going to have to quit shipping American jobs overseas. Otherwise, the citizens who are not able to afford higher education are left with the great big choice of jobs like construction and coal mining in order to survive unless some small company will take them under their wing and teach them a skill. That's just not good enough in my book....
I could go on for days here... Sorry for the long post.