Friday, December 07, 2007

Smoke Free St. Louis City now pushing American Cancer Society's phony 16 Cigarette Claim!

Smoke Free St. Louis City is now pushing a smoking ban on St. Louis City with the American Cancer Society's phony 16 Cigarette Claim, the same claim Smoke Free Illinois used to help pass the Illinois smoking ban. According to the Smoke Free St. Louis City website:

For patrons & employees, 2 hours in a smoky bar is the same as smoking nearly four cigarettes.
For bar employees, working an 8-hour shift is equivalent to actively smoking nearly a pack a day.

http://smokefreestl.org/thefacts.html

Dr. Michael Siegel, whose many studies concerning secondhand smoke exposure of bar and restaurant workers helped to form the basis of the Surgeon General Carmona's report, has just this week condemned this unqualified claim:

"The smoking ban proponents who are claiming that the nonsmoker exposed for 8 hours will suffer the same health effects as if they smoked 16 cigarettes a day are wrong, and they are being deceptive, probably intentionally."
http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/

This is a list of other false or very misleading claims that now appear on Smoke Free St. Louis City website:

HVAC systems re-circulate the contaminated air.

Most cancer-causing particles and all cancer-causing gasses are too small to be trapped by filters.

Ventilation systems start at about $8,000 for a small restaurant; this does not include putting up walls or other physical barriers that are the norm in ventilation-based ordinances.

Studies of sales tax data from 81 cities in 6 states consistently demonstrate that smokefree ordinances have no effect of restaurant revenues.

The claim that air filtration system for bar and restaurants won't work can be quickly refuted by a trip to these two webites:
http://www.air-quality-eng.com/tobacco.php
http://www.smokeeaters.org/

How could anyone from St. Louis claim that smoking bans won't hurt bars and restaurants with a straight face? People from St. Louis remember Elsa Barth and the Seventh Inn.