Clearing The Air

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

New way to reverse the smoking bans in your local city, county, or state

On the Bob Davis show this morning Dr. Levy from the CATO Institute was the featured guest.

I called in to ask the following question:

"If secondhand smoke levels were found to be safer than OSHA levels......wouldn't that nullify the entire issue?"

Dr. Levy's response was that if secondhand smoke was proven to be safer than OSHA permissible exposure limits (PEL) it may pre-empt all smoking bans......because a federal agency's regulatory authority (OSHA) would supersede state, county, and municipal smoking bans.

Proof that that secondhand smoke IS safer than OSHA regulations has been confirmed in multiple studies.....one is even peer reviewed and published in the British Medical Journal:

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

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

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

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

Further to note:
OSHA itself has stated regarding secondhand smoke:

"Field studies of environmental tobacco smoke indicate that under normal conditions, the components in tobacco smoke are diluted below existing Permissible Exposure Levels (PELS.) as referenced in the Air Contaminant Standard (29 CFR 1910.1000 )...It would be very rare to find a workplace with so much smoking that any individual PEL would be exceeded."

-Letter From Greg Watchman, Acting Ass't Sec'y, OSHA, To Leroy J Pletten, PHD, July 8, 1997

It would be great if an organization like CATO, Forces, Center for Consumer Freedom, Competitive Enterprise Institute or law firms around the country would use the above information to pre-empt smoking bans everywhere........imagine the sense of freedom in restoring the free market system across the globe.