Mid-Michigan Dining

Haven’t had a smoking ban post in a while, but I got this press release today from the International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retaliers…..out of Georigia. 

LANSING, Michigan September 8, 2008 – According to Chris McCalla,
legislative director of the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers
Association, his organization has learned that the Michigan state
legislature will likely reopen debate on a proposed statewide smoking ban
based on erroneous information provided by well-funded anti-smoking forces.

Michigan’s State Representatives and Senators have been deadlocked on a
proposal for several months with each preferring their own version of such a
ban. McCalla believes the two chambers are working to approve a statewide
smoking ban by the end of this current session.

“IPCPR members are owners and employees of neighborhood smoke shops across
Michigan, throughout the United States and the world where premium, handmade
cigars are sold to adult consumers,” said McCalla. “Their customers are
friends and neighbors who enjoy the pleasures of a good cigar. and they are
voters,” he added.

McCalla noted that most cigar stores are family-owned small businesses led
by mom-and-pop operators who are pillars of the communities they serve,
providing thousands of jobs and paying millions of dollars annually in
payroll, sales and excise taxes.

According to McCalla, Michigan legislators and the general public are being
deceived by the well-funded anti-smoking organizations into believing what
they hear about second-hand smoke.

“They need to read the 2006 Surgeon General’s Report which clearly concludes
that second-hand smoke should not be considered a legitimate health or
environmental hazard. Biased media reports, slanted statements by
anti-tobacco groups and even deliberately erroneous press releases from the
Surgeon General’s office contradict the actual findings of the Report,” he
said.

McCalla referred to a report written by Dr. Jerome Arnett, Jr., a
pulmonologist who lives in Helvetia, West Virginia.

“The abuse of scientific integrity and the generation of faulty outcomes
have led to deception of the American public on a grand scale, draconian
government over-regulation and the squandering of public monies while
personal choice and freedom have been denied to millions of smokers,” Arnett
wrote.

A recent study published by an environmental chemistry professor supports
McCalla’s and Arnett’s position.

Barry Dellinger is a professor of environmental chemistry at Louisiana State
University. His research on the environmental effects of combustion was
presented last month at the 236th National Meeting of the American Chemical
Society in Philadelphia. Dellinger found that nonsmokers are impacted
primarily by elements in the air formed during the combustion process of
things like coal in power plants and burning trees, not tobacco. “Wood
smoke is the worst,” Dellinger is quoted as having said, discussing heart
and lung health risks.

McCalla challenged the Michigan legislature to demand clarification and
validation for health claims made by the anti-smoking organizations in
support of any statewide smoking ban.

“Information promoting legislation of this magnitude, with its widespread
social and economic impact as well as its deprivation of constitutional
rights of business owners and consumers alike, needs to be documented for
public review and shared in an understandable format,” he said.

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