Clearing The Air

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Review of Minnesota smoking ban law indicates that lawmakers were aware that their actions would eliminate businesses and jobs

https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/?id=82&year=2007&type=0

Language added to the Minnesota smoking ban was as follows:

(c) "Dislocated worker" means an individual who is a resident of Minnesota at the time employment ceased or was working in the state at the time employment ceased and:
(1) has been permanently separated or has received a notice of permanent separation from public or private sector employment and is eligible for or has exhausted entitlement to unemployment benefits, and is unlikely to return to the previous industry or occupation;
(2) has been long-term unemployed and has limited opportunities for employment or reemployment in the same or a similar occupation in the area in which the individual resides, including older individuals who may have substantial barriers to employment by reason of age;
(3) has been self-employed..........and is unemployed as a result of

(4) has been permanently separated from employment in a restaurant, bar, or lawful gambling organization from October 1, 2007, to October 1, 2009, due to the implementation of any state law prohibiting smoking;

Sec. 13. DISLOCATED WORKER PROGRAM; ALLOCATION OF FUNDS. The Job Skills Partnership Board must enable the dislocated worker program under Minnesota Statutes, section 116L.17, to provide services under that program to employees of bars, restaurants, and lawful gambling organizations who become unemployed from October 1, 2007, to October 1, 2009, due to the provisions of this act.

Sec. 14. FREEDOM TO BREATHE ACT. This act shall be referred to as the "Freedom to Breathe Act of 2007."

MN lawmakers were right about the job losses caused by the smoking bans. 400+ establishments are now closed, leaving approximately 10,000 MN hospitality workers unemployed, not to mention unemployed suppliers to the local hospitality industry such as yours truly.

And remember the economy, business, and jobs damaging smoking ban was promoted almost exclusively by Democrat (DFL) lawmakers who voted approximately 85-95% in favor of smoking bans....Republicans voted approximately 85-95% in favor of PRIVATE hospitality owners making their own business decisions....see vote link here:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/ongoing/votetracker/issue_view.php?id=70

This language indicates that DFL lawmakers were aware that smoking bans were bad for business and jobs yet they enacted this economy destroying legislation anyway. That shows malice and culpabilty as far as I'm concerned.

As to the claim that secondhand smoke is a health hazard, air quality test results by Johns Hopkins University, the American Cancer Society, a Minnesota Environmental Health Department, and various researchers whose testing and report was peer reviewed and published in the esteemed British Medical Journal......prove that secondhand smoke is 2.6 - 25,000 times SAFER than occupational (OSHA) workplace regulations:

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2010/10/air-quality-testing-of-secondhand-smoke.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2010/09/new-st-louis-aq-study-published-by.html

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

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

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

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2008/03/british-medical-journal-who-conclude.html

All nullify the argument that secondhand smoke is a workplace health hazard.

Especially since federal OSHA regulations trump, or pre-empt, state smoking ban laws which are not based on scientific air quality test results.