On Tuesday June 30th and July 1st the Health and Human Services Committee will hold hearings on the proposed smoking ban. The hearing will start at noon on both days and will be held in the Kennedy Room (208) at City Hall.
Now is the time to let your Alderman know how you feel about the smoking ban. City residents and business owners will be given a chance to testify. While the bill still would require that the county ban smoking - there have been hints that they want to drop the "trigger language" and go at it alone. Even if a ban would exist in the county - it would still have the same harsh economic effect. St Louis has greatly benefited from the Illinois Smoking Ban. Last summer the Landing had the best year on record even in the midst of a bad economy. Instead of following a state that is in talks to raise taxes to offset its losses - we should instead send them a thank you note.
As you may remember the hearings in early June were canceled. If that happens we will let you know. As for right now - we will be contacting every bar and restaurant in the city to let them know.
Tony Palazzolo
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Smoking Ban Hearings
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Monday, June 08, 2009
The Illinois smoking ban and Illinois casinos
I got a letter in the regular Post-Dispatch today:
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/editorialcommentary/story/02EA93184B7D35FF862575CC007E3E9A?OpenDocument
The big study of the Illinois smoking ban and Illinois casinos is now available on the St. Louis Federal Reserve website.
http://research.stlouisfed.org/wp/2009/2009-027.pdf
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Health and Human Resources Committee Hearing Cancelled
The two public hearings concerning the St. Louis City Smoke Free Air Act of 2009 were suddenly cancelled late friday. Why we do not know. We had just found out about hearings late on June 3rd. But we had managed to call quite a few bars by Friday. It was a pain to call them all back.
Smoke Free St. Louis City was busy e-mailing contact lists of public health organizations, urging recipients to "pack the conference room", saying that Diana Benanti would sign you up to speak and "support you in the preparation of your testimony". "Signs are already printed and ready to be held by YOU!!!!!!" the e-mail said. Nothing wrong with this. I too would use such resources if I had them. But I have to wonder how many of those holding signs and speaking at the hearing would have been doing so "on the clock".
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Federal Reserve economists release smoking ban study
St. Louis Federal Reserve economists have released their study of the Illinois smoking ban and 2008 casino revenues:
“Smoking was banned in all Illinois casinos in January 2008. We explore the effects that the smoking ban has had on Illinois casino revenue and attendance. Our empirical methodology extends and enhances that of previous literature in that we observe a natural experiment in comparing the performance of Illinois casinos with out-of-state casinos (no smoking ban) that share a market with Illinois casinos. Estimates suggest that revenue and admissions at Illinois casinos declined by more than 20 percent ($400 million) and 12 percent, respectively. Calculations reveal that casino tax revenue to state and local governments declined by approximately $200 million.”
http://research.stlouisfed.org/wp/2009/2009-027.pdf
Mayor Slay’s office was sent an advance copy of this research. No wonder Mayor Slay now wants to exempt casinos from Lyda Krewson’s smoking ban. But University of Wisconsin economist Dr. Chad Cotti has estimated that Lyda’s smoking ban would cut City bar employment 19.7 percent. Shouldn’t City bars get an exemption too?
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Letter to Alderman Carter
Alderman Carter,
Almost all the studies which find no business harm due to smoking bans are conducted by public health people, not professional economists, are peer-reviewed by other public health people, not professional economists, and are published in public health journals, not economics journals. Attached is a very recent article published in an economics journal by a professional economist arguing that smoking bans do harm business. And here is a link to an article on the subject by the same economist in Forbes Magazine.
The premise of Alderman Krewson's smoking ban is that such a restriction would greatly improve public health in St. Louis City. But is that premise true?
Please find attached a just released study by researchers from the Rand Corporation, the Congressional Budget Office, the University of Wisconsin, and Stanford University, "CHANGES IN U.S. HOSPITALIZATION AND MORTALITY RATES FOLLOWING SMOKING BANS", which finds that smoking bans had no effect on hospitalizaton or mortality rates in communities that impose them.
The researchers report:
"U.S. state and local governments are increasingly restricting smoking in public places. This paper analyzes nationally representative databases, including the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, to compare short-term changes in mortality and hospitalization rates in smoking-restricted regions with control regions. In contrast with smaller regional studies, we find that workplace bans are not associated with statistically significant short-term declines in mortality or hospital admissions for myocardial infarction or other diseases. An analysis simulating smaller studies using subsamples reveals that large short-term increases in myocardial infarction incidence following a workplace ban are as common as the large decreases reported in the published literature."
In sharp contrast to this finding, please also find attached a large study of American smoking bans by British researchers which found that bans do not reduce the overall exposure of nonsmokers to secondhand smoke and actually increase the overall secondhand smoke exposure of young children, especially low-income children, as smokers are displaced to private cars and homes. The researchers state:
"While bans in public transportation or in schools decrease the exposure of non smokers, bans in recreational public places can in fact perversely increase their exposure by displacing smokers to private places where they contaminate non smokers, and in particular young children. Bans affect socioeconomic groups differently: we find that smoking bans increase the exposure of poorer individuals, while it decreases the exposure of richer individuals, leading to widening health disparities.http://www.ifs.org.uk/publications.php?publication_id=3523
Alderman Carter, Herbie's Vintage 72 has the same Merv 17 99.97 HEPA and HEGA air purification recommended by OSHA and the CDC to protect public indoor places and indoor workplaces from biological warfare and to strip influenza from hospital air in case of a influenza pandemic. Surely it can offer substantial and sufficient protection to the employees at Herbies far beyond OSHA's air qualtity requirements. And the level of air filtration at Herbie's leases for 15 dollar a day.
http://www.ashrae.org/docLib/20061213_24671Burroughs.pdfhttp://www.osha.gov/SLTC/pandemicinfluenza/pandemic_health.htmlhttp://www.upmc-biosecurity.org/website/special_topics/protecting_building_occupants/merv.htmlhttp://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=INTERPRETATIONS&p_id=24602
Casinos, with similar technology, have managed to get their air cleaner than the air outdoors. This paper shows that casinos thru ventilation and filtration can now make their indoor air cleaner than the air outdoors. Tests done at the Bellagio Casino found that RSP concentrations in its air ranged between 12 to 58 micrograms per cubic meter of air (ug/m3). Outdoor air that clean would receive one of the EPA's two best outdoor air quality ratings: Good or Moderate. Less than half of this RSP was found to be tobacco-related. Belagio Casino air is well within the range of 100 or fewer (ug/m3) of tobacco-related RSP that the 1986 World Health Organization guidelines said would be of "limited or no concern".
http://www.americangaming.org/assets/files/studies/FINAL_IAQ_WHITE_PAPER_7-7-06.pdf
As long as reasonable measures are taken to clear and clean the air of St. Louis City bars, restaurants and other entertainment venues, public health in St. Louis City is clearly most protected when public policy allows for well-filtrated adult gathering places, where smoking may be permitted, within walking distance of most St. Louis City homes, so people don't have to drive home after drinking. The final study attached shows that drunk driving fatality rates go up in communities that ban smoking since people have to drive far from home to find a tavern or club that allows smoking.
Alderman Carter, I am not paid by any tobacco compay, restaurant association, filtration company or anyone else to work against a St. Louis City smoking ban, and I have no financial interest, now or in the future, in any air filtration company.
Sincerely,
Bill Hannegan
Keep St. Louis Free
