Clearing The Air

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Millionaires pan-handling

My good friends at American Non-Smoker's Rights sent me an email seeking donations so they could continue funding smoking bans:

We have great news!

Thanks to ANR members and advocates like you all across America, residents of three more states will soon be enjoying their right to breathe smokefree air. Voters approved smokefree ballot measures in Arizona, Nevada and Ohio.

In Arizona, Prop 201 passed by 54.2% making all workplaces and public places 100% smokefree.

In Ohio, Issue #5 passed by 58.3%, guaranteeing a strong statewide smokefree law in Ohio.
In Nevada, the Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act (Question 5) passed by 53.9%, making most workplaces smokefree (excludes stand-alone bars and casinos). The Nevada law also restores local control to allow cities and towns to strengthen the state law at the local level.

The fight is not over. Please consider making a donation today, to help us fight back against Big Tobacco attacks, and defend your right to breathe smokefree air!

My reply:

Cynthia,

I received the preceeding email from your group requesting donations so you could pass more smoking bans. However, since you already receive millions of dollars from Nicoderm interests at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF is a division of the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical nicotine company) (hyperlink)). I question the need for donations from the general public whose property rights you seek to violate by passing additional smoking bans, simply to increase profits for the pharmaceutical nicotine interests who provided funding to you. Afterall, several professional organizations have conducted air quality testing which proves all secondhand smoke levels are 15 - 25,000 times SAFER than OSHA regulations for secondhand smoke, thus ensuring that the protection of workers' health is already safeguarded even without smoking bans.

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

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

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2006/11/repaces-new-study-uses-same-old-tricks.html

So, you can rest assured donations from me will not be forthcoming.

Good luck in your efforts to continue lying to lawmakers and the general public......while I, for my part, will continue to expose the marketing scam you and RWJF perpetuate in the name of public health.

Mark Wernimont
Minneapolis, MN.
http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/

Those blindcopied in my reply included lawmakers around the country, media outlets, as well as numerous Attorney Generals' offices.

Feel free to send me additional correspondence ANR.....you provide such great fodder for the blog.