Clearing The Air

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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