A million here a million there and soon we’re talking about a lot of money.
For the Colorado bar and restaurant business a lot of money is nearly $17-million dollars lost due to that state’s smoking ban. And that’s just for the first quarter of this year. For number crunchers that’s a 6.4 percent overall decline. On the individual establishment level the decline ranges from 15 to 40 percent. For a business that operates on the edge, as do many in the hopsitality industry, any decline can be severe.
We all know that the secondhand smoke panic, on which the ban is based, is a made up canard designed to get smokers to quit, or better still hook up to smoking cessation devices. Beyond that the Colorado ban violates all three of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration economic feasibility criteria. Considering that OSHA is only federal agency that governs indoor air quality, smoking bans, wherever they occur, operate without any regulatory justification. The vast majority of bars, restaurants and other venues where smoking is permitted exceed OSHA’s air quality standards. The Colorado Coalition for Equal Rights is not fooled by the lies coming out of the anti-tobacco advocates. Before long the public will be aware that their legislators have been victimized by con artists. The legislators will then soon follow suit and demand some answers from the anti-smoking operatives that infect the halls of power.
0 Comments