Posted on Tuesday, 11/03/2009 - 8:13 p.m. PST — by snowbird
An alternative to smoking bans
If the public was honestly and truthfully informed about the effects of second-hand smoke, there would be fewer no-smoking laws in this country. A little smoke from a handful of crushed leaves and some paper that is mixed with the air of a decently ventilated venue is going to harm or kill you?
There has never been a single study showing that exposure to the low levels of smoke found in bars and restaurants with decent modern ventilation and filtration systems kills or harms anyone.
As to the annoyance of smoking, a compromise between smokers and non-smokers can be reached, through setting a quality standard and the use of modern ventilation technology.
Air ventilation can easily create a comfortable environment that removes not just passive smoke, but also and especially the potentially serious contaminants that are independent from smoking.
Thomas Laprade
Joined: May 2009
Current Posts: 1
Counciilwoman Uranga plans to consult with the Health Dept on ventilation arrangements regarding the smoking ban exceptions. The problem with this is that most Health Depts feel they have a "moral imperative" to limit smoking as much as possible. The way to do that is to state a "zero tolerance" policy for any smoke in the air at all. Under those sorts of rules NO amount of ventilation, even open windows at the height of Hurricane Katrina, would be enough. . . . . .
At one point several years ago in New York, several councilfolks tried to dig the city out of its smoking ban disaster by proposing a rule requiring smoking bars to install systems that would make the air inside the bars CLEANER than the air outside on the street. Guess what? It was thrown out as totally unacceptable.... even though the workers would obviously have been better off than in the stuffy, unventilated, "smoke-free" barts they currently had. . . . . .
When you let fanatics determine public policy you're doomed... and that's a lesson Councilwoman Uranga will probably find herself bumping into here. . . . . .
Michael J. McFadden, Author of "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains"