Clearing The Air

Monday, July 10, 2006

Pro-smoking ban activists continue spouting their lies because they know the mainstream media would never call them on the facts....

Pro-smoking ban state representative Doug Meslow of MN. recently wrote an editorial piece published in the St. Paul Pioneer Press in which he states:

Columnist Craig Westover recently characterized opposition to secondhand smoke protections in the category of a "traditional Republican position." Oh really?........Surveys consistently show that an overwhelming majority of Minnesota Republicans support laws to make bars and restaurants smoke-free.

Apparently Mr. Meslow doesn't read his party platform regularly:

Minnesota G.O.P. 2004 party platform states:

The Republican Party believes that proper stewardship of our natural resources and agricultural lands will best be achieved through sound science and adherence to Constitutionally guaranteed property rights. Therefore, we support:

S. Opposing any state or local adoption of a smoking ban on privately owned restaurants and bars. (found at bottom of page 7) (link)

Meslow continues:
"...the majority of us have concluded that removing dangerous airborne toxins from public gathering spots is the right thing to do...."

Actually a bar or restaurant is a private business, and the "right thing" to do is what public officials do regarding welding smoke in the workplace at factories -allow OSHA regulations to dictate health and safety standards. Why would you treat tobacco smoke differently than welding smoke? Unless you have a special agenda, and if your funding for that special agenda comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation , an off shoot of the Johnson & Johnson Company which manufactures Nicoderm & Nicoderm CQ. Welding smoke is far, far, more hazardous, concentrated, and dangerous, it contains airborne heavy metals which are known class A carcinogens. Further, OSHA has regulations for each and every airborne component of secondhand smoke and the published testing by the American Cancer Society proves secondhand smoke is up to 25,000 times safer than OSHA regulations.

And indeed I answered Meslow's lies in a rebuttal piece to the Pioneer Press above, yet I can all but guarantee it won't see any coverage in the media. The fact is if the media and activists were confident about their side of the issue they would allow a dissenting opinion.......absent that confidence they adhere to the mantra if you repeat a lie enough times it becomes reality.