Clearing The Air

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.

(text in red = supporting data hyperlink)

posted by marcus aurelius @ 10:56 PM