Rep. Lori works on smoking ban
October 27, 2009 by WLKM
State Rep. Matt Lori is working with a bipartisan group of House lawmakers to figure out a new strategy for getting a smoking ban signed into law.
Earlier this year, the House approved legislation to ban smoking in most public places, including bars and restaurants, but that plan has since stalled in the Senate because it exempts casino gambling floors, cigar bars and tobacco shops from the proposed ban.
Senate leaders have repeatedly said they will only support a total ban, so as not to create an unfair competitive advantage for some businesses over others. Last year, the Senate approved a total smoking ban, but that plan fell six votes short in the House.
“It seems pretty clear the Senate is only willing to support a total ban, no exemptions, and I think we have enough support for a total ban in the House, so that’s the direction I think we are going to go,” said Lori, of Constantine.
The first-term lawmaker said he is hopeful a vote will happened before the end of the year.
“Michigan lags behind when it comes to protecting residents from this public health hazard. A majority of people I run across definitely favor a smoking ban. Everybody, smokers included, understands that second-hand smoke is harmful,” Lori said.
Nationwide, 37 other states have gone smoke-free.
Nearly 80 percent of Michigan residents are nonsmokers. According to the surgeon general, nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke have a 20-percent to 30-percent increased risk of developing lung cancer and a 30-percent increased chance of developing heart disease.
Actually, Indianapolis just voted down a smoking ban. States are becoming more wise to the propaganda of tobacco control.
In 1998 the World Health Organization completed one of the largest international case-control studies of secondary smoke and lung cancer ever undertaken. When the report was finished however it didn’t get the usual big flashy press release and news conference most of these reports do. Instead it was up to a UK Telegraph reporter, Victoria MacDonald, to uncover what it had found and publicize it.
This huge study, the one that had been counted on to deliver a final condemnation of secondary smoke’s connection to lung cancer instead found NO significant connection for adults. And when it looked at children the news for Antismokers was even worse: the one, single, significant result of the entire study was that children of smokers eventually got 22% *LESS* lung cancer than children of nonsmokers!
The WHO was not happy with the results of its study being released in that way so they immediately turned around and issued a big bold headlined press release declaring ‘PASSIVE SMOKING DOES CAUSE LUNG CANCER, DO NOT LET THEM FOOL YOU’, ” despite the fact that their own study was not even able to find minimally significant support for such a claim.
The abstract, some analysis, and the link to the full study for your own examination can be found through the courtesies of Michael McFadden and Audrey Silk at the NY Clash site at the bottom of:
http://www.nycclash.com/Philly.html#ETSTable
So take one thing from the WHO’s antismoking press release as fact: “DO NOT LET THEM FOOL YOU!” Their actual study did NOT support smoking bans
I always get a kick out of smokers or like Youvebeenhad who continue to post discredited and phoney science bought and paid for years ago by big tobacco. They then add links to mysterious sites run by mystery groups where the “science” would make most knowledgeable people shake their heads. Even big tobacco companies no longer print some of this fishy and heavily discredited material.