(what non-smokers and big business don’t want you to know!)
I am terribly disappointed that the City of Houston Council has failed to uphold Houstonians freedoms, (they have now banned smoking in Houston Restaurants).
I realize that the hype of second hand smoke has caused undo pressure on your individual offices. The city council folks have fell to the majority without the consideration of the current minority (smokers) I had to look outside to make sure I still had an American flag waving – yes you council members know it, you’ve read the facts – or at the least sent someone else to read them. Yes, I am a smoker. Yes, I feel that MY personal freedom to corrupt my own lungs has been infringed upon.
OH BUT WAIT, before all of you “smoking protesters” start throwing organic tomatoes at me because you believe my smoking is infringing on your rights; let me give you some things to consider. I’m no scientist but I’ve done my homework. First, it might be helpful if I explain how scientists come up with their data.
One is called “relative risk”. Relative risk or RR is defined as “Ratio of the risk of disease or death among the exposed to the risk among the unexposed: this usage is synonymous with “risk ratio””
The EPA and many other organizations spend tons of time, energy and money studying the RR of many different things. One being “second hand smoke” also referred to as SHS or ETS. According to the EPA a dangerous RR is considered to be at least 3.0 or higher. Can you guess what the RR of SHS is? Well, let me inform you: According to the EPA and the WHO it’s approximately 1.19, about half the amount of what is considered dangerous.
This amount is about equal to cooking on a barbeque grill outside, so I suggest that all you folks who called for the smoking ban run out and toss your grills! HURRY!
I do have to give kudos to the Houston Civil Servants for passing this unnecessary bill so quickly, as it seems that our state officials aren’t planning on cleaning up the Houston air pollution until the year 2020.
I mean why rush? We are already protecting Houstonians from the (oh my goodness) dangerous SHS, I believe the number of deaths from SHS is 3,000 people a year according to studies.
We have nothing to worry about because by 2020 the 60,000 people that die each year from air pollutants, according to the National Resources Defense Council, won’t be around to vote especially since recent studies show that chemical plants and factories in Houston (the number one polluted city in America) are releasing six to fifteen times more of pollutants than they report.
An article published by Aaron J. Cohnen, D.Sc and Assoc. showed that the RR for “Residents of areas with high ambient air pollution” is between 1.0-1.6 and that the RR for “Non-smokers around family members or co-workers is between 1.0-1.5. Interested in more eye opening news?
The EPA gives chlorinated water a RR of 1.5, more than is given to SHS. Best not drink the City water either! Not to mention that the pollutants released are depleting the ozone layer and that the U.N. Environment program has discovered that skin cancer will increase by 26% for each 10% drop in ozone. Hope you protesters were wearing sunscreen!
Or maybe you should spend more time inside with the formaldehyde, bleaches and other toxic cleaners thinking about protesting more important issues like world hunger or maybe even, if your brave, the giant industrial factories that have much more money and power than we mere smokers will ever have.
