DENVER
- Denver Colorado, in response to the state legislature’s recent
rejection of the Smoke Free bill, which makes all workplaces including
bars and restaurants smoke free, CoPIRG, has launched a local
grassroots campaign in Denver to protect our citizens from second hand
smoke.
“The
tobacco companies make a product that kills 440,000 Americans a year
which is 1,200 Americans a day. They know the product is inherently
deadly then knowingly spike it with ingredients that make them so
addictive people struggle their whole lives to quit,” said Dustin Tran,
Denver campaign director for CoPIRG.
It’s
not just the people who use tobacco that are at risk. Smoke-free
workplace laws save lives by protecting non-smokers from the harmful
effects of secondhand smoke, which health experts say leads to over
53,000 deaths in the U.S. every year. A study published in April 2005
in the British Medical Journal suggests that banning smoking in a
community can result in an almost immediate drop-off in the number of
heart attacks in that community.
Restaurant
and bar workers are most at risk. They have to spend eight hours a day
breathing in second hand smoke which is equivalent to smoking one and a
half packs of cigarettes for that shift. Patrons to the bars and
restaurants are also affected by the second hand smoke, just two hours
of exposure in a smoke-filled room is equivalent to smoking 5-10
cigarettes, up to a half a pack.
Remember
the tobacco industry claimed, under oath, in front of Congress that
smoking doesn’t cause cancer, nicotine isn’t addictive, and Joe Camel
ads aren’t aimed at teenagers. Let’s put an end to second hand smoke
and the deaths that go along with it.
In neighborhoods throughout Denver campaign staffers will ask residents
to support the campaign by signing petitions, calling their city
council members, and joining CoPIRG as members.
