Clearing The Air

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

A funny thing happened at the forum.....

.....I had forgotten to write this little story down, but a comment from the previous post reminded me about it.

Want to hear a great story which details the hypocrisy of the anti-smoking activists? First I must preface that one of the reasons the activists say they want to ban smoking is that they are looking out for employees' health.

That having been said the following actually happened at the last MN. House Committee hearing approx. 3/15/2005.

One of the MN. House members proposed an amendment to the proposed smoking ban bill HF405 authored by Meslow & Latz, the amendment would allow retail tobacco stores to allow smoking. The House member asked the bill's author Meslow or Latz, I don't remember which, if he wouldn't be concerned about employee health in allowing the tobacco stores to continue smoking even if the bars & restaurants were forced to go smoke-free. Meslow / Latz answer: "No I wouldn't be concerned about the employee being exposed to secondhand smoke, because they knew what they were getting into when they decided to work at a tobacco shop."

Hmmmmm.....sort of like the employee or the customer of a bar or restaurant who knew they were entering a private establishment which allowed smoking?

Maybe now you can see why a smoking ban didn't pass nor is ever likely to pass at the state; even the authors don't really believe the talking points. Plus there is that pesky data from the city of St. Louis Park 2004.