Clearing The Air

Though they try...and try....and try.....they just can't justify.....

Bob from the American Lung tries to dismiss secondhand smoke air quality test result comparisons to OSHA regulations by stating to a reporter I've been corresponding with " .....that there are no OSHA standards for secondhand smoke", regarding the findings on this post, secondhand smoke concentrations are 152 times safer than OSHA regulations.

The pro smoking ban people love to try to dismiss OSHA by saying there is no air quality standard for secondhand smoke. Actually OSHA is more specific than that, OSHA has a permissible exposure limit (pel) for each and every "harmful" chemical in secondhand smoke. If you want to measure the formaldehyde levels in secondhand smoke then you compare the readings to OSHA (pel) for formaldehyde, benzene same thing etc. etc. etc. If the readings are lower than the OSHA (pel) for that particular chemical, then there is no health hazard.

OSHA also does not have a permissible exposure limit for welding smoke, but that doesn't keep them from regulating the air quality for the harmful components given off in welding smoke at our factories. So for instance to control the hazards of stainless steel welding in factories, they measure for airborne chromium (Cr) or nickel (Ni) both carcinogenic components of stainless steel welding smoke. Odd that the American Lung doesn't complain about OSHA air quality standards in our factories......must be a specific "agenda" the American Lung is addressing.

Perhaps this is their agenda, a grant from RWJF, the largest single shareholder of Nicoderm manufacturer Johnson & Johnson company. $99 million dollar to the American Lung, American Cancer, American Heart Association from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to "......provide financial support and, in particular, funds to help lobbying efforts........" with the anticipated result of "......bringing about social change."

If I were compensated for the financial loss the smoking bans have incurred upon me, I might not fight the exaggerations & fabrications about secondhand smoke that the pro-smoking ban groups carelessly espouse. But absent the ability to sell Smokeeters to bars and restaurants and thus financially support myself, I have all the time in the world to exhibit the air quality facts the pro-smoking ban folks try to hide and or discredit.

posted by marcus aurelius @ 5:00 PM