Tobacco Documents Online

Tq-= ~.oca~.,] Zr~s~ tute !]):206-646-3091 OC~ .',"~2 "?;-~ xo.'~.~ ..z Tuesday October 27, 1992 * Seattle Post-lntelligencer Before yesterday's 7-0 vote, health /'~1| i • _,~1 • .adv.o.cates re.presenting the. King County mmoK ng ~,~d,~., socmty, the Amerman Lung As- '. sociation, Group Health and other organi- "zations said removing the sign would ow'oyn : ro,~.o the threat of. youths getting C hooked on s.m.oking: "Advertising ]s directed tow.a.rd youth," Sharyl Hudson, a Garfield H~gh banned ,o,oo, student, told the council. "The idea is to keep kids from starting" County Council wants him out of Kingdome By II~thy George P-/Reporler The King County Council yesterday ape,roved an ordinance designed to boot the Marlboro Man sign and its pro- smoking message out of the county-owned Kingdome. But it remains to be seen whether the ordinance, which bans tobacco advertis- ing in county facilities, will snuff out the smoking cowboy. Shortly after the vote, Kingdome man- agers and the lobbyist for the Philip Morris tobacco company both said attor- neys will have to sort out .what if a~y immediate impact the ordinance will have.. They said it's unclear whether the ordinance ca.n force Philip Morris to remove the sign from its highly visible Astrid Berg, director oft he American Lung Association of Washington, said one of every five deaths in the state is related to tobacco u.se. But repr.ese.ntatwes, of the tobacco and adverhsmg ~ndustrms and the Amer- ican Civil Liberties Union argued that banning tobacco ads in county facilities would violate the constitutional right of free speech. They also said the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down similar local- government attempts to restrict the mes- sages in advertising. Seattle attorney Cameron Devote, representing the Association of National Advertisers, urged the council "to raise yourself up above the very emotional testimony you will hear." Attorney Daniel Troy of Washington, D.C., representing the American Adver- tising Federation, said: "Experience shows that censorship is contagious. Once we decide todeny people ~nforma tion about products because we don't like them .. there is no stopping point." Bart Waidman, an attorney for the !Mariners, told the council the team ' doesn't advocate smoking. But he said it also doesn't want to lose revenues from the sign unless the county makes up for it by sweetening other terms of the lease. "This is an attempt to take revenue from the club," he said, adding that the Baseball Club of Seattle would prefer to address the Marlboro Man. problem in the context of lease negottatmns that are just starting. spot near the scoreboard. That's because Philip Morris adver- tises in the Kingdome under a contract with the Seattle Mariners, not with the county. The team controls Kingdome advertis- ing under a county-approved lease agree- meat designed to help professional base- ball survive financially in Seattle. The previous owner, Jeff Smulyan, recently renewed the contract for five years. TI23672671

.~,'.'[he,vzce-preszdential debar es were~ ~':' " .fin Ol ed on a woman's is ue ~ =,~-~'.,~.m,~,abortion. Loretta McLaughhn 13A, Wisconsin State Journal Thursday, October 15, 199~ T!23672672

- Before the council ~'ote~-~octors ta.ngl~:l. with some bar and restaurant owners Tues, , day night as the council heard public testi-." mony on the proposed smoking ban.-~ ' Nearly 100 speakers signed registration- ,. slips, most opposing the smoking ban.-~: "I don't think it's necessary,~ said Dick ., Skilrud, owner of Shakey's Pizza & Buifet,~.. 714 S. Gammon Road. "In the four'years2=:.-:. ,.. I've been on Gammon Road, I'.ve never bad ~ • a complaint about smoking." . Patrick Fitzpatrick, representing : the "- Madison Bowling Proprietors Assooiation, ~ presented a petition signed by members o~ the organization opposing the ban. "It's ~reedom of choice," he said. "These products we are selling are licensed prod- ~ UCtS." Alphonse Reichenberger said he has been a lifelong non-smoker. "We've had a tendency to make smokers : second-class citizens," he said, •"That's bothered me." Bill Geist, representing the Greater: Madison Visitors and Convention Bureau, ~ also spoke against the ban. "It says that Madison does not open its : arms and welcome everyone, to this corn- , munity," he said• : While most bar and restaurant owners ; who spoke opposed the ban, Bob Urdiales, . who operates a smoke-free Subway Res- , taurant in Sun Prairie, said he favors it. Urdiales, who has a daughter with asth- ; ma, said he has received letters from other : restaurant owners who also endorse the ~ ban. Advantages of a smoke-free restau- rant, he said, are reduced fire risk, lower liability risk and reduced maintenance in cleaning curtains, walls and upholstery. T!23672673

OPINION t 'It's enough to ddve a man to ddnk.' ~ Jack Blake 9A Wisconsi~ State Journal Sat~day, Oc~obe¢ 17, 1992 foe should stick to math It's good to learn that Ira Share- nuw is still in town• I thought that he might have finally received the doctor of mathematics~ degree he has been seeking for the last sew era~ years and accepted a Job offer elsewhere. In my view, Ira as a social com- mentator is a darn good math In- structor. I can vouch for the second part personally. After 20 years away from math in the classroom I took an algebra cias~ from him and managed to earn an A. Not just any instructor could have done that for me. But his letter Oct. 2 shows he has become obsessed with one issue outside his realm of expertise and ha~: taken it to fldiculous extreme& Ira has seriou~ and dangerou~ physical reactlon~ when exposed to tobacco smoke. That's sad. It's not his fault, and he is within his right~ to gripe about it when he is In the presence of a smoker. That's fine. But there is no co.piracy. He has gone too far when he condem~ Athlete~ for Youth, Big Brothers/° Sisters, Easier Seals, etal. for cep'.ing money from Philip Morris, He has gone too far when he aug- gesls that there is something evil about the idea that two ~Oscar Mayer exeeuUves also work for Unil.ed Way. He seem~ to think that there Is something terrible about Oscar Mayer adopting the **corporate line" on the smoker's right bill. It never occurs to him that Oscar Mayor's employees never asked to be bought out by Kraft and that Kralt never asked to,be bought out by Philip MorH& He actually seems to think t'hat history ix just a big gun aimed di- rectly at hit head. Knowing him, l , would have guessed that he was smart enough and mature enough to realize that history dous not care une way or the other, f wish he would concentrate on helping other strugglutg math students. He is We welcome Iottcr~ of 200 or lower words on maffcm of public interest. Lette~ ale subject to editing: not all can be ran. Picot sign and include your address and telephone number. Name~ and hometowns will bc published. Send fcttcrs to: • Le~e~J to the Editor, Wi~-~nsin Stale Joun~l, P.O. Box 8058. Midian, Wis. ~708 pretty gc~l at that. -- Stevea A. HoHeek. Madison Just blowing smoke Is it merely a coincidence that the anti-smoker opinion of Jack Lohman got more space and a big- ger headline than the Madison res- taurant owners opposed to the smoking ban? LOhman pretends he knows bet- . ter than those stupid restaurant owners do about what's good for them, even though he's not an owner, but an anti-smoking at- grinder who couldn't care less about their businesses. It Is an in- sult to our intelligence that the State Journal should even print such disingenuous garbage. And lies, lies, lies. Sure, the Beverly Hills smoking ban worked so well that they repealed iL Baus were repealed in Los Angeles, Flag- staff and other cities as well. The crazed fanaticism of the anti-smok- ing clique is the only thing that rams those bans throogh. But the big lie is Lehman claim- ing. "After the EPA declared to- bacco smoke a dangerous human carcinogen...'" It never happened. Those EPA drafts are preliminary documents which clearly state that they are not to be construed to rep- resent agency policy, and "draft -- do not quote or cite" is printed at the top of every page within. But with typical low cunning. and the eager cooperation of the media, the anti-smokers release a news report every few month~ an- n~mcing that the EPA ix about to declare ~--ond-hand smoke a haman carcieogen~ This is intended to catw.e c~afua~on and deceive flue ignorant, the credulous and the prejudiced that by now it most surely have happened. Yet these consummate masters of the anti-truth, the anti-smokers have the audacity to accuse their victims of lying. -- Carol Thompson, Madison Get a job Do any city council members own a business7 I doubt it with some of the rn/es they try to make. When our restaurant was built as many were in Madison, I0, 20, 50, 75 years ago, what was the smoking etiquette? Today our res- taurant and most others spend hun- dreds or thousands of dollars each year to try to clean the air. [ asked my customers their opin- Ion: 70 for and 53 against the ban. Some won't return if this happeus. Is Madison going to subsidize us ff we do lose customer~? Not[ A note for smokers. You don't have the "right" to smoke, it's a privilege like driving. I don't con- done your behavior but I hate more this group of 25 or 30, 50 elitists who are telling 20,000.30,000 own- ers and customers how to live. ~ Milch Feller. Fellers, Madison Bottoms up So the Madison City Council has banned smoking in restaurants, ex- cept those where alcohol sales pro- duce more than one-third of the est- blishment's gro~ income. It's enough to drive a man to drink. -- Jack Blake. Madixoa Who's in charge Regarding the smoking ban, the government should just "butt out." Let the people decide where they want to take their business, if they want to go to a non-smoking restau- rant, they have that choice. Did the City Council's vote fleet the majority or just a vocal mioortty on this issue? We are not at all eonyinced that most of the people support th~ ban ~ Lois Mattkews mad Lia Scheid. Madison Ti23672674