Clearing The Air

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Al Gore explains the real reason behind the pro-smoking ban agenda

Cigarette smoking is a "significant contributor to global warming!" according to Al (pal) Gore.

Well, why didn't they just say so in the first place? I would have gladly gotten on board the smoking ban agenda if I had known that it caused global warming...............not!

These activists are nuttier than a fruitcake.......desperately grasping at straws.......and now they've got Al pal on their side.

I wonder if Al pal would consider this American Cancer Society AQ study and its comparison to OSHA regulations an "inconvenient truth?"

Looking at the bloated former VP, my guess is that his "carbon footprint" is significantly large, and he probably contributes more to global warming than cigarette smoke does.

And in fact, as I've stated in an earlier article:

Like smoking ban junk science, many environmentalists are going too far in their misguided agenda, which seems to be to scare the media and the sleeping public into pandemonium for continued research grants and financial donations.

From this NASA site documenting the effect that upper level pollution from volcanic eruptions have on our climate comes this statement:

What is the mechanism wherby volcanic eruptions (and upper level pollution) can make the Earth cooler? The volcanic clouds that reach into the stratosphere are composed of particulates and gases, ...... Millions of tons of .......... particles (referred to as aerosols), which reflect energy coming from the Sun back to space. This solar energy is therefore not available to heat the Earth's surface and lower atmosphere. (resulting in global cooling).

There you go, Al seems to have his facts wrong again. He didn't invent the internet and cigarette smoke doesn't cause global warming.

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Thursday, September 28, 2006

There are numerous special interest groups willing to exaggerate and lie about the facts, to get lawmakers to pass needless laws.

Dear lawmaker,

Here is what you should know before considering a ban on smoking in private bars and restaurants:

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2006/06/case-against-smoking-ban-laws.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2004/04/american-cancer-society-test-results.html

Why do pharmaceutical nicotine interests like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Johnson & Johnson Company fund the lobbying efforts of pro-smoking ban activists?.........because it adds to their bottom line profits:

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2006/09/now-that-rwjf-has-put-smoking-bans-in.html

http://www.rwjf.org/portfolios/grantlist.jsp?iaid=143&page=2

http://www.rwjf.org/portfolios/resources/grantsreport.jsp?filename=041244.htm&iaid=141&gsa=1#int_grantinfo

Thank you for taking the time to read over the facts. The livelihood of tens of thousands of people depend upon you making the right choice.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Minnesota Parnership for Action Against Tobacco (MPAAT) / ClearWay MN proves smoking bans eliminate customers in 7 out of 10 establishments

Click here for a larger view.

While the American Cancer Society & OSHA prove smoking bans are completely unjustified.

Monday, September 25, 2006

After reading the St. Paul Pioneer Press editorial page this morning....

.....I had to do a double take.

What's this? The pro-smoking ban local media of record calls out the Association of Nonsmokers' and MPAAT/ClearWay MN for using deceptive tactics? I nearly choked on my Cheerios.

The reason for the literary lashing?

"....data demonstrating the societal cost of smoking are sufficient to justify a smoking ban as a means to reduce both.....Having said that, we also regret an increasing tendency to exaggerate science, not just in the smoking ban debate, but virtually wherever science and public policy collide...."

Initially this MPAAT data was brought to us by Jason Hoppin and Tim Nelson of the Pioneer Press blog "City Hall Scoop" .

Clearing the Air later expanded upon that revelation with this post:

MPAAT now known as ClearWay Minnesota mistakenly provides a picture of honesty.

That honesty was in showing a snapshot of the customer losses after enactment of a smoking ban on St. Paul bars & restaurants.

The mistake? What MPAAT really wanted to do was show how much cleaner the air was since enactment of smoking bans......not hard to do once you remove 80% + of the customers though. (click here for the customer decrease after smoking bans data)

Update: The "customers before" heading is the customer count before smoking bans were enacted, the "customers after" is the customer count after smoking bans were enacted. Thus we have proof positive from MPAAT/Clearway Minnesota that smoking bans do indeed destroy the hospitality business in 7 out of 10 establishments.

Now, if the Pioneer Press editorial board is truly interested, as they claim, in scientific integrity they would highlight these two scientific air quality test results regarding secondhand smoke:

The first AQ testing is a story they partially covered back on September 4, 2004 in which the St. Louis Park, MN. Environmental Health Department conducted very sophisticated air quality testing. Clearing the Air has those results and comparative analysis to OSHA workplace air quality regulations here.

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2006/02/air-quality-testing-and-secondhand.html

The second AQ testing was conducted by the American Cancer Society and again consists of the same very sophisticated air quality testing. Clearing the Air has those results and comparative analysis to OSHA workplace air quality regulations here.

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2004/04/american-cancer-society-test-results.html

.........Of course I did say if.

Update: Dr. Siegel covers this story in more depth at his weblog The Rest of the Story, more MPAAT scrutiny here.

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Sunday, September 24, 2006

Calling all lawyers......

I believe I have a case you may want to consider.

As I was perusing the internet recently, I came upon the story of a hospitality owner who is seeking damages from financial harm caused by the local smoking ban.

Frank Watkins sat alone at his bar one recent afternoon......."I never wanted to bring attention to myself or the bar," he said, taking a puff on a cigarette. "But sometimes you just have to stand up for what's right."........Nearly three years after the state banned just about all indoor smoking.....He has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the county, claiming the law that went into effect in July 2003 violated his civil rights by interfering with his ability to make a living. He is seeking $27.5 million in damages.

I too have had my civil rights violated by a law which interferes with my ability to make a living. 14th Amendment provisions:

declaring that no state shall 'deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law,' nor 'deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.'

Second, the ADEA provides a discrete and calibrated remedy for a narrowly defined range of governmental (and private) conduct. The ADEA applies only to employment. Congress has thus carefully confined its prohibition ..........to an area of vital concern and importance to the affected individuals- their ability to earn a living and thus to subsist.

I am not however, only interested in suing the local governments which enacted such unnecessary and flawed smoking ban ordinances........I demand recompense from the pharmaceutical interests (RWJF / Johnson & Johnson Company) who fund the lobbying efforts toward smoking bans and the non-profits who mislead lawmakers into passing such flawed and arbitrary laws to begin with.

What is my case you ask? How about air quality testing which discredits the "health hazard" claim by showing that secondhand smoke is up to 25,000 times SAFER than OSHA air quality regulations. This air quality data was provided to lawmakers during testimony.

I did give the Institute for Justice the first right of refusal on this case, but that notice period has expired........30% contingency fee is acceptable.

Serious lawfirms only may contact me at upper right link at "View my complete profile"

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Here's a familiar song in a Celtic land

In the last six months 24 Dublin Pubs have called last orders for the final time. Despite having only 10% of the bars in Ireland to cater for 35% of the population Dublin pubs are closing in unprecedented numbers and being turned into apartment and retail complexes.

Read more here.

Anti smoking groups and smoking ban supporters try to blame everything but the smoking ban for the dramatic increase in Irish bar closures. However, if one were to go back one hundred years and chart Irish bar closures the line will effectively flat line until March 2004, the time the smoking ban was imposed.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the lies by the pro-smoking ban activists need to be investigated and prosecuted. For while those lies benefit the pharmaceutical interests which fund them, there are tens of thousands; if not hundreds of thousands; harmed by those same lies.

Business losses on this side of the pond, from smoking bans.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) is probably one of the boldest liars in the tobacco control movement

On their webpage they claim:

Drifting tobacco smoke already kills more people than motor vehicle accidents, all crimes, AIDS, illegal drugs, etc. In other words, people are statistically more likely to die as a result of drifting tobacco smoke than by a car, gun, or the AIDS virus.

A bold faced lie if ever there was one. Because we know from the American Cancer Society air quality testing that secondhand smoke concentrations are up to 25,000 times SAFER than OSHA regulations for secondhand smoke. So we know as a fact that more people are killed by motor vehicle accidents, all crimes, AIDS, illegal drugs, etc. than from secondhand smoke......ASH is telling a whopper of a lie and hoping that the public and lawmakers are too stupid to think for themselves.

Motive?

ASH is a member organization of the Center for Tobacco-Free Kids which was funded by Nicoderm interests at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, $70,000,000.00 worth of funding to be exact.

"....gee why would an alternative nicotine product manufacturer -J & J/RWJF want its competitor -the tobacco companies' products to be banned?...." Perhaps to continue selling $500,000,000.00 worth of smoking cessation products annually.

They (RWJF/Johnson & Johnson Company) will fund any organization to spread lies to insure that the alternative nicotine product revenue stream continues.

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Tuesday, September 19, 2006

What have we learned about secondhand smoke, smoking bans, and the people who lobby for and fund them?

1) Secondhand smoke is NOT hazardous. Even I was surprised by this fact, given that the only rhetoric from the activists and the media you hear is that secondhand smoke kills.

-But air quality testing from a municipal environmental health department proved secondhand smoke is up to 500 times safer than the OSHA regulations for secondhand smoke.

-And air quality testing from the American Cancer Society proved secondhand smoke is up to 25,000 times safer than the OSHA regulations for secondhand smoke.

-Regarding the alleged 4,000 chemicals "added" to cigarettes, actually these chemicals are naturally ocurring on our planet and found in nearly all plants, vegetables and food sources......so that claim is a blatant scare tactic. And the reality is that everyone is exposed to all those chemicals with or without exposure to tobacco smoke.

2) Smoking bans are not good for business, they are eliminating jobs and businesses at an alarming rate.

-Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco (MPAAT) now ClearWay MN., proved smoking bans destroy patronage (income) in 7 out of 10 hospitality establishments.

-Local hospitality establishments in Hennepin & Ramsey Counties in Minnesota have been forced out of business since the implementation of smoking bans at an alarming rate. 83 establishments closed one year after a smoking ban, yet the year prior without a ban, only 15 establishments went out of business.

-Nationwide smoking bans have eliminated nearly 1,000 establishments, and countless jobs.

3) The groups who lobby our lawmakers for smoking bans are funded by pharmaceutical nicotine interests, whose true motives are to increase market share and product sales of alternative nicotine products.

-The American Lung Association, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, the American Medical Association, American Non-Smoker's Rights, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (NCTFK), the CDC, numerous health departments, University of California school system, University of MN., University of Madison, WI., University of IL. at Chicago, Boston University, etc., etc., have all been funded by either the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) or the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical company directly.

- The RWJF was founded by Johnson & Johnson Company, and is also the single largest shareholder of J & J Company stock, and current board members are former J & J board members or executives. IE. RWJF is a division of the Johnson & Johnson Company.

- ALZA is the manufacturer of Nicoderm and Nicoderm CQ, ALZA is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Johnson and Johnson Company. RWJF hopes that smoking bans lead to a significant percentage of smokers quitting.....which helps them and Johnson and Johnson sell over $500 million a year in over the counter smoking cessation products.

Thus, the fact is that the justification for smoking bans is based on false and deceptive tactics, funded and supported by pharmceutical nicotine interests in an effort to increase product sales, period. All smoking bans should be challenged and reversed in favor of a free market decision on whether establishment owners wish to serve smokers, non-smokers, or both in their private establishments.

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Monday, September 18, 2006

The pro-smoking ban tactic as of late is to get the issue of smoking bans put on a voter referendum

Smoking bans are not passing as easily as they used to......so the latest tactic by the pharmaceutical nicotine interests, especially in states where a ban hasn't passed year after year, is to get smoking bans onto a voter referendum. The thinking, no doubt, is that since nearly 75% of the population doesn't smoke......smoking bans on private property will pass with overwhelming support.

The thing to remember is that the message that brought the issue to the voter was that secondhand smoke is hazardous........However, at 25,000 times SAFER than OSHA guidelines the justification is and was a canard, thus providing the appropriate court challenge we could topple this house of cards any day now.

Are there any bar & restaurant associations, ventilation companies, vending companies, tobacco companies, gaming associations, etc. out there with the brass to pool together the resources to take on the challenge? ......If so, these would be the guys to take on the case.

But then again, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has taken measures to insure that a lot of law firms see things their way. It seems that RWJF (and by extension J & J) are brazen enough to "influence" any opposition they may have.

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Prohibition didn't work then and it doesn't work now....

....Smoke-easy is the new word on the street.

Lawmakers, did you really think the general public would let the pharmaceutical interests control them like they control you?

If you're operating a smoke-easy and need to remove tobacco smoke from the air, or would simply like to improve the air quality in your government forced smoke-free establishment please contact us here:

We're not only discreet, our systems are performance guaranteed to meet or exceed OSHA regulations for secondhand smoke.

Smoking bans are being rejected by lawmakers......

......at a record pace. (link here)

These facts must be making their way to government offices nationwide.

Other links which contradict the pro-smoking ban message:

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2004/04/american-cancer-society-test-results.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2005/12/ventilation-not-legislation.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2006/09/heres-real-paydirt-for-rwjf-and.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2006/09/now-that-rwjf-has-put-smoking-bans-in.html

Sunday, September 17, 2006

The Silencing of Science

This study investigates the silencing undertakings that developed around the smoking article that claimed secondhand smoke might not be as dangerous as usually believed.

It uses both quantitative and qualitative data to examine the silencing tactics employed by the different kinds of partisans. We then examine international media coverage of this study, based on searches of the Internet. The results of the Internet search, which indicate a high degree of self-silencing by the media..

All of the stories on secondhand smoke were examined, and the results revealed a strikingly one-sided discourse consistent with self-silencing by the media. Specifically, out of more than 500 articles examined, fewer than 10 afforded any sense of either scientific uncertainty or of negative findings challenging the prevailing consensus. -Sheldon Ungar and Dennis Bray

The media and the pro-smoking activist groups which fund them have determined that in order to railroad their smoking ban agenda through local governments nationwide only one side of the issue can be presented to the public......that fact was confirmed by this University of Illinois at Chicago Project Director who received $2.3 million from pharmaceutical nicotine interests at RWJF to study the effects of media coverage of smoking bans and their effects on future enactment of smoking bans.

Therefore, you also won't find the American Cancer Society air quality facts which prove secondhand smoke is up to 25,000 times SAFER than OSHA regulations, on the front page of your local newspaper, or on your local network broadcast.......it doesn't however, make those test results any less factual.......just damaging enough to the pro-smoking ban movement that the activists don't want you to know about them.

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Saturday, September 16, 2006

California Lt Gov. Cruz Bustamante thinks the University of California school system's acceptance of $500,000 tobacco research money is wrong.....

.......however he neglects to mention on the other end of the spectrum pharmaceutical nicotine interests have also funded the University of California school system with mult-million dollar grants. In fact $3,582,992.00+ has been paid by Nicoderm interests at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the University of California school system in just the first 2 pages of grants at this link alone:

http://tinyurl.com/z9otn

Cruz issued a warning to University of California regents:

As you may know, a $500,000 UCLA study, funded by the tobacco industry, was released in 2003 questioning the risk of developing lung cancer from second-hand smoke. Although the findings of this study conflict with respected state and national studies that offer evidence of the strong correlation between second-hand smoke and lung cancer, its results already were used in the defeat of an anti-smoking ordinance in Missouri.

If Bustamante were being non-partisan (fair) he would also condemn the University of California school system for studies which claim secondhand smoke is hazardous.....in light of the fact that they have all been funded by pharmaceutical nicotine interests at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation:

http://tinyurl.com/z9otn

But looking at the above link and the multi-millions of dollars provided to the University of California school system by RWJF......the university school system there might not exist at all without the partisan pharmaceutical funding.....who cares if it funds lies?.....RWJF may be the only thing keeping higher education afloat in California.

Besides what Bustamante might not realize is that other factors served to defeat not only the proposed smoking ban in Missouri......but also the partisan funded research which conflicts with respected state and national studies coming out of the Nicoderm funded U of California school system as a whole.

One of those other factors comes from the American Cancer Society, whose air quality testing proves secondhand smoke is up to 25,000 times SAFER than OSHA air quality regulations for secondhand smoke. Nullifying the argument that secondhand smoke is a health hazard......and eliminating the justification for smoking bans altogether.

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2004/04/american-cancer-society-test-results.html

Sorry Cruz, the house of cards is beginning to crumble and no amount of letters by you or the other pharmaceutical funded activists will keep the inevitable free market forces from eventually being victorious.

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Tuesday, September 12, 2006

American Cancer Society demands that the federal government fund cancer research......isn't that the job of the American Cancer Society?

Of course it is , but since the American Cancer Society is wasting all of its (and RWJF) resources on funding smoking ban efforts, even though secondhand smoke levels are 25,000 times SAFER than required (not a health hazard), ACS does not have the ability to fulfill its obligation to donors by funding cancer research, and fulfill its promise to the pharmaceutical nicotine interests at the same time....to fund smoking ban efforts. So ACS is demanding that the federal governemnt provide funding for cancer research.

From the ACS website comes this heading:

American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network urges Congress to provide sufficient funding increases....

It should be noted however that if the American Cancer Society weren't embroiled in funding arbitrary and unnecessary smoking ban legislation in city halls and county commissioner offices around the country, they themselves would have the resources to provide cancer research funding. It was reported that here in Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN. in 2004 the American Cancer Society spent $600,000.00 to get both municipalities to pass smoking ban ordinances.

Other spending by the American Cancer Society to push for smoking bans:

http://www.rwjf.org/portfolios/grant.jsp?id=55848&iaid=143

http://www.rwjf.org/portfolios/grant.jsp?id=55832&iaid=143

http://www.rwjf.org/portfolios/grant.jsp?id=56681&iaid=143

http://www.rwjf.org/portfolios/grant.jsp?id=55847&iaid=143

http://www.rwjf.org/newsroom/newsreleasesdetail.jsp?id=10190&gsa=1

http://www.rwjf.org/portfolios/resources/grantsreport.jsp?filename=026698s.htm&iaid=143&gsa=1#int_grantinfo

So now they (ACS) want the federal taxpayer to pick up their responsibility, well I'm curious how they spent the first $99 million that the pharmaceutical interests at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation gave them?

The federal government cannot continue to balloon their budget simply because the ACS wants to fund unnecessary pet (smoking ban) projects.

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Sunday, September 10, 2006

True confessions of my reasons for battling the pro-smoking ban activists

Some Clearing the Air readers may know of my background and the financial crisis I face because of the anti-business smoking bans enacted in the Twin Cities, others may not. This post explains the why(s) and how(s) of my continued fight against the special interest agenda.

My career of 15 years, selling Smokeeter air filtration equipment to bars and restaurants came to an abrupt end once the debate for smoking bans began. As an independent sales professional my unemployment came without benefits or insurance of any kind. Once bar and restaurant owners no longer needed my employer's air filtration equipment and services, I was relieved of my job and duties without so much as a thank you, back in 6/2005. It took 9 months before I finally became gainfully employed again.

During that time period of being unemployed, without the ability to continue making car payments my vehicle quickly fell into repossession status, and eventually was surrendered. Without the ability to continue making child support payments a family court judge decided I was in contempt and ordered me to jail. Without the ability to continue making mortgage payments our home quickly fell into foreclosure status, the sheriff's sale ocurred on May 5, 2006, and as it currently stands we are to be evicted on November 1, 2006; unless I can come up with $290,000.00 before that deadline......not a likely scenario.

We like our home and definitely do not want to leave, not only because we love the location and layout, but we also hate the thought of packing and the work involved in moving. (Update: Our home was foreclosed and we now rent a small farmhouse. Therefore it is a fact that smoking bans have added to the home foreclosure crisis)

A job loss is difficult enough I'm sure, when it's due to job performance, or some other reason related to personal responsiblity. But a job loss due to smoking bans based on lies and funded by a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry......which stands to further increase their profits after the passage of those bans; is too frustrating and angering to comprehend happening to anyone else, let alone yourself. And what makes the situation even more angering is that these special interest groups -RWJF, and the Johnson & Johnson Company, stand to make considerable profits from the government action which eliminated my job......yet they are not (as of this writing) compelled to provide recompense to those of us harmed by their actions.

So when I discovered the St. Louis Park, MN. Environmental Health Department air quality testing which proves secondhand smoke levels are up to 500 times SAFER than OSHA workplace air quality regulations, thus nullifying the argument that secondhand smoke is a health hazard, I knew I had to distribute that information far and wide....to expose the smoking ban movement for what it is..........A FRAUD.

Then when I discovered the American Cancer Society air quality testing which proves secondhand smoke levels are up to 25,000 times SAFER than OSHA workplace air quality regulations, thus nullifying the argument that secondhand smoke is a health hazard, I knew I also had to distribute that information far and wide....to further expose the smoking ban movement for what it is..........AN ENORMOUS FRAUD.

And when I discovered the billion dollar industry and oganizations (RWJF and J & J company), which perpetuate that enormous fraud, I knew I had to distribute that information far and wide....to expose the agenda of the smoking ban movement for what it is..........A $1 billion a year marketing scheme that is coercive, collusive and frankly, bordering on racketeering. Designed to increase the profits of the pharmaceutical interests which fund them, not for any purported health risks which have now been proven false.

So I may very well have lost everything I worked for, but I also plan to expose the very same crooked organizations which put me in this situation, so that others don't have to experience the same losses......in the (false) name of "public health" that I have.

Addtional air quality tests prove that secondhand smoke IS NOT a workplace health hazard:

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2007/11/johns-hopkins-air-quality-testing-of.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2007/04/bmj-published-air-quality-test-results.html

My story of job loss due to smoking ban is not unique, there are hundreds of thousands who share the same fate:

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2009/03/worldwide-economic-meltdown-and.html

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Lawmaker discusses the harrasment and terrorism tactics of the pro-smoking ban activists

At this audio file New Hampshire Senator Johnson describes the threats and intimidation tactics used by the pro-smoking ban activists. Excerpt below:

“I’ve been told I’m promoting cancer and that’s not the worst of it … In my opinion they crossed the line and have taking a giant step backwards. And I’m not alone in this, and I know that I’m not alone in this. I look around this room at many of my colleagues and they’ve told me the very same stories, and they agree that it’s gone too far. This is all about respect for us as people, and our families. As an elected official I have a deep respect for my constituents and the right to their opinion, but when I’m told that I’m promoting cancer, that’s downright disrespectful. When a member’s wife receives a phone call at 2:00 in the afternoon when he’s most likely not at home and she’s told that if he doesn’t change his vote he’s going to have to deal with the health consequences and questioning how he can live with himself and she with him, that’s deplorable, and disrespectful. I wish I could tell you this is an isolated incident but it’s unfortunately its not. Its happened more than once to more than one of us, and that’s one time too many. So I ask you once again, when does this stop?”

And now that secondhand smoke has been proven to be 25,000 times safer than OSHA air quality regulations, there's no telling what the pharmaceutical funded activists will do or say.

Thanks to Forces for bringing this story to our attention.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

It's always good to know you make a difference......

From this story out of Pittsburgh, PA. comes the news of another attempt to pass a smoking ban. But it's the last paragraph that caught my eye:

......a loss of business (because of smoking bans) has also been noted in Minnesota.

Now it is important to understand that Minnesota is not unique in this experience of smoking bans causing serious damage to the hospitality industry.....but what does make us unique is that the facts about how damaging smoking bans are to local businesses are now being reported in the alternative media.....the internet. Whereas in previous smoking ban hearings the activists would have falsely claimed that smoking bans do not cause adverse financial harm, it seems that even they now know better than to continue their lies in the modern internet age.

It's a testament to the iron fisted control of the tobacco control movement over mainstream media that losses in other smoking ban affected areas until now have not been widely reported.

But, just as the blogosphere was influential at exposing Dan Rather's blunder, so to is the blogosphere proving to be independent of the censored mainstream media coverage of the smoking ban issue.

It is fortunate for us that smoking ban activists did not recognize the importance that independent websites and weblogs could have on impeding their design of worldwide domination.

And the worldwide web is surprisingly effective in distributing this American Cancer Society test result which proves secondhand smoke is up to 25,000 times SAFER than OSHA workplace air quality regulations. Making future smoking bans a more costly, difficult, and unnecessary venture for the pharmaceutical nicotine interests.

If I were you Johnson & Johnson, I would call off your dogs of war and concentrate on selling smoking cessation products the old fashioned way with voluntary marketing and advertising, not via smoking bans.

For your weekend entertainment.....here's a classic

I originally posted this in October 2005, but it's still very entertaining.

Contact your local lawmakers

From this link.

Local governments seem to think that we're too stupid to make decisions for ourselves....check out this audio link.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

MPAAT now known as ClearWay Minnesota mistakenly provides a picture of honesty

That honesty was in showing a snapshot of the customer losses after enactment of a smoking ban on St. Paul bars & restaurants.

The mistake? What MPAAT really wanted to do was show how much cleaner the air was since enactment of smoking bans......not hard to do once you remove 80% + of the customers though. (click on the table above for the customer loss data)

Update: The "customers before" heading is the customer count before smoking bans were enacted, the "customers after" is the customer count after smoking bans were enacted. Thus we have proof positive from MPAAT/Clearway Minnesota that smoking bans do indeed destroy the hospitality business in 7 out of 10 establishments.

Yeah, smoking bans are good for business.....just ask MPAAT / ClearWay Minnesota. (for those not from around here MPAAT is the MSA funded anti-tobacco group which locally has been spreading the lies that secondhand smoke kills 38,000 people a year. However, I think we've thoroughly debunked that scam here).

Meanwhile, just ask the American Cancer Society and OSHA if the bans are necessary in the first place......they'll give 25,000 reasons why the answer is no.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Now that RWJF has put smoking bans in place, here's how they capitalize...

......by getting doctors to prescribe new medications for smoking cessation.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation invested hundreds of millions lying to lawmakers about secondhand smoke.....to get smoking bans passed. But the payoff is now close at hand......good thing RWJF's parent company Johnson & Johnson recently bought Pfizer and their new smoking cessation drugs Nicoderm, Nicorette, Nicotrol, Commit, etc.

Read more here.

This doesn't even take into account the over the counter smoking cessation products like Nicoderm and Nicoderm CQ which make Johnson & Johnson and the RWJF hundreds of millions of dollars already (see table below).

Smoking-cessation category sales*
Information Resources Inc. (IRI) 52 weeks ended Oct. 2, 2005 (not including Wal-Mart data)
Total smoking-cessation category in FDMX* ($494.8 million) (link)

Funding smoking bans is a good investment when you manufacture smoking cessation products.

Who cares if the justification is based on lies? And who cares who those lies harm?

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2007/02/smoking-bans-good-public-policy-or.html

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Saturday, September 02, 2006

Here's the real paydirt for RWJF and the Johnson & Johnson Company

This financial grant from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the CDC is apparently to influence the CDC and officials. So you can be assured when RWJF needed the CDC to promote policies that benefit RWJF / J&J like allowing the tobacco Master Settlement funds to pay for smoking cessation products such as Nicoderm and Nicoderm CQ.....both products are manufactured by the Johnson & Johnson Company's subsidiary ALZA, the CDC will be only too happy to help.

And it is important to remember RWJF was founded by the Johnson & Johnson Company. And since RWJF provides the funding for smoking bans, based on the belief that a certain percentage of smokers will quit, they have expanded their market potential for further sales of pharmaceutical nicotine products. Making the RWJF motive for funding smoking bans one that is based on profit, not facts about secondhand smoke. (RWJF is the single largest shareholder of J & J stock, $5.4 billion worth)

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Additional information about the ties between RWJF and the Johnson & Johnson Company.

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2005/07/why-is-pharmaceutical-company-funding.html

Secondhand smoke is actually 25,000 times SAFER than OSHA air quality regulations for secondhand smoke -test results by the American Cancer Society.

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2004/04/american-cancer-society-test-results.html

Tracking the special interest pharmaceutical nicotine funding behind smoking ban policies

If you'd like to research how the Nicoderm marketing department, otherwise known as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, spends its money to eliminate tobacco nicotine use, thereby increasing pharmaceutical nicotine use; here's that link.

Friday, September 01, 2006

And now the next chapter.....St. Paul council member Dave Thune gets his wish......and starts closing down St. Paul bars and restaurants

Readers may remember that it was Dave Thune in 2004 who was first seduced by the Nicoderm....er I mean, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation lies about secondhand smoke. He was the first to propose smoking bans in the metro area.....thankfully Mayor Randy Kelly vetoed that nonsense.

Now however, liberal mayor Chris Coleman is in office so Thune and his anti-business cronies were free to impose their wet dream......a utopian dream of no smoking in bars and restaurants.......and no customers in those bars and restaurants.

So now it begins in earnest, Mike's Bar in St. Paul, MN. closed........and left no doubt as to the reason for their business closing.

And I'd like to again take this moment to remind the anti-business lawmakers that secondhand smoke, by the activists own test results, is NOT a health hazard.

St. Louis Park, MN. officials proved secondhand smoke is up to 500 times SAFER than OSHA air quality regulations.

While American Cancer Society officials proved secondhand smoke is up to 25,000 times SAFER than OSHA air quality regulations.

Higher taxes, more crime, more business closings........ remember St. Paul residents this is what you get for putting liberals into office......and believing the B.S. lies of the pharmaceutical nicotine activists.

Check out the rest of the businesses lawmakers and the Nicoderm (RWJF) marketing department have closed down......in the name of "public health". I know that's why I used to go to the bars & restaurants....for my health.

The pro-smoking ban group MPAAT realizes its reputation is so sleazy, it goes into hiding

In a confusing new twist MPAAT seemes to be changing their name. Apparently even MPAAT has recognized the negative perception that the public has of this taxpayer funded organization.

So now they want to be known as ClearWay Minnesota. One of the partner groups that MPAAT, er ClearWay Minnesota has aligned themselves with is CleanAir Minneapolis, whose mission it seems is to help stop the hemorrhaging of the hospitality industry which is dying because of the smoking bans MPAAT helped to fund. These people at MPAAT are involved in such a circle jerk it's becoming comical just to watch them. They fund the lobbying efforts of unnecessary smoking ban laws, then 16 months later realize that they are decimating the hospitality industry and now are going to try to throw some marketing dollars toward the very same hospitality industry they destroyed.

From this Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Nicoderm) funded organization TTAC (Tobacco Technical Assistance Consortium) website comes this partnership listing:

Minnesota: The Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco (MPAAT) developed ads for Hennepin County that included bars. And, Clean Air Minneapolis developed ads with the Minneapolis Convention & Visitors Center for Minneapolis bars.

MPAAT has been renamed ClearWay Minnesota; their website is: www.clearwaymn.org. contact Kerri Gordon 952-767-1403 or kgordon@mpaat.org

Clean Air Minneapolis - www.cleanairminneapolis.com
Contact Sue Schettle at Hennepin Medical Society at 612-623-2889 or sschettle@metrodoctors.com

This organization, MPAAT/ClearWay Minnesota needs to have their charter taken away.......and put the money back into the taxpayers hands, or better yet into the hands of those of us whose livelihoods and businesses were destroyed because of their meddling.......unnecessary meddling......as even the American Cancer Society found that secondhand smoke concentrations are up to 25,000 times SAFER than OSHA air quality regulations.

MPAAT, ClearWay Minnesota or whatever you want to call yourself you can run but you can't hide. Yours is the dirtiest, and sleaziest taxpayer funded organization in Minnesota. And though AG Mike Hatch couldn't/wouldn't do it,(link is to an appeasement program from RWJF to AGs nationwide) we aim to take you down.......even if it's just in the court of public opinion.

History of MPAAT and the MN smoking ban:

http://www.viewsfromtheworld.com/Smoking-ban-debate-is-about,053

RWJF is doing a little housekeeping, by removing links to records of grants it has provided to smoking ban activists

The only conclusion I can come to is that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is trying to hide certain grants from the public view because it paints them or the grantee in an unfavorable (biased) light.

What it really comes down to is that Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Johnson & Johnson Company realize it looks inappropriate for the Nicoderm manufacturer to be providing funding to groups which are pushing for a smoking ban agenda.

I'm actually quite flattered that my investigations into the inappropriate relationship between a pharmaceutical nicotine giant and the activists who push lawmakers toward smoking ban legislation is drawing enough of a concern that RWJF is spending the manpower to remove these grant records from its website.

I do have one question though, as a 501.3C doesn't lack of transparency of grant expenditures violate the IRS code?

Here are some Clearing the Air articles where RWJF has removed the links to financial grants for tobacco control activists:

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2005/10/if-non-profits-cant-get-me-to-stop.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2005/08/johnson-johnson-lobbying-moneyrwjf.html

I will continue to update the list of articles where links to RWJF grants once existed. The fact that RWJF is trying to hide these grants, certianly seems to be an admission of wrongdoing on their part.

Feel free to drop me a line if you find an inactive RWJF link to any of my articles, also perhaps some regular readers with server space may want to start backing up copies of existing RWJF grants before they all disappear.

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