Clearing The Air

South Dakota organizer successfully delays statewide smoking ban

The South Dakota smoking ban will not take effect as scheduled next week because sufficient signatures have been filed to put the measure to a statewide public vote in next year's November election.

A coalition of bar and casino owners filed petition signatures Monday to refer the smoking ban to a public vote.

Secretary of State Chris Nelson says his office has determined that enough valid signatures exist to put the measure on the ballot.

The law passed earlier by the South Dakota Legislature would ban smoking in bars, Deadwood casinos and video lottery establishments. It extends a ban that has outlawed smoking in most public areas and workplaces since 2002.

It's great to see democracy in action, as opposed to most bans which are forced upon citizens by an ill-informed legislative body. "Ill-informed" because lawmakers are lobbied by Nicoderm special interests (ALA, AMA, CTFK, RWJF, etc.) who are simply concerned about propping up pharmaceutical nicotine profits without fully understanding the impact on business and job losses caused by smoking bans.

Furthermore, lawmakers are not provided the 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......which proves that secondhand smoke is 2.6 - 25,000 times SAFER than occupational (OSHA) workplace regulations:

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".

Good luck to those who still believe in the free market system and freedom of choice......it's obvious that both are under assault these days in South Dakota and in our nation's capitol.

BTW some may not realize it, but South Dakota already has a statewide smoking ban in place:

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2006/07/lawmakers-looking-for-common-sense.html

Obviously however, that doesn't seem to satisfy the Nicoderm marketing department (RWJF) which funds all sorts of non-profits to lobby their pharmaceutical nicotine agenda a.k.a. smoking bans:

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2007/02/smoking-bans-good-public-policy-or.html

11/09 Update on South Dakota's delayed smoking ban found here.

posted by marcus aurelius @ 9:21 PM