Friday, November 21, 2008

Smoke-Free St. Louis City Commentary

Since the Smoke-Free St. Louis City site doesn't take comments from its opposition, or even acknowledge that grassroots opposition exists, I have decided to post some of their video commentaries on the Keep St. Louis Free site so that we can have our say.

Why doesn't St. Louis have a smoking ban? Because freedom activists, mom and pop bars and restaurants and Harrah's Casino all joined together to protest any ban, and challenge the junk science justification of smoking bans!

This young St. Louisan needs to check out some of the St. Louis venues that are now clearing their air through Marth filtration. He assumes that secondhand smoke is causing the irritation he experiences in St. Louis venues, but a great number of allergens, toxins and pollutants are present in St. Louis bar and restaurant air other than tobacco smoke that may be causing his trouble. Air filtration removes all of these possible culprits. As winter comes on, Marth Brothers and I believe that many more venues will opt to provide truly clean air through their technology. Of course, plenty of smoke-free venues are already available too.

This young man cites Kansas City as an example of a town that has gone smoke-free. But Kansas City antismoking groups only barely got a ban passed by exempting casinos. I hope St. Louis would never be so unfair to local mom and pop businesses. Though smoking is allowed in KC casinos, the Kansas City smoking ban makes it illegal to smoke in cigar shops! How dumb is that! Please, St. Louis doesn't need any such irrational laws!

Furthermore, it was misleading for the young man to say that smoking was banned in Dallas in his school days. Dallas still allows smoking in bars. A bitter fight for the sake of freedom and property rights is currently ongoing in Dallas:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/111808smoking.1c14ee380.html

In fact, two of my sons attend the University of Dallas. I recently wrote a letter to the Dallas Morning News asking that the Dallas City Council not expose my sons to the 13 percent increase in drunk driving fatalities cities that impose bar smoking bans take on:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/letters/stories/DN-thursletters_14edi.State.Edition1.1385dc8.html

Finally, this young man has a sense of entitlement and a cavalier attitude toward the property rights of others that he needs to lose. It's funny that he asks for this imposition on local business owners for the sake of his health while standing on the sidewalk breathing the benzo-alpha-pyrene and nitro pyrenes from nearby traffic. If he is really worried about his health, he should consider a move to rural Missouri. Just breathing the air of St. Louis City 24/7 reputedly raises one's lung cancer risk 30 percent or more.

http://kuneman.smokersclub.com/urban.html




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