Stop the Wisconsin Smoking Ban
Wisconsin has been spared the state-wide smoking ban for the 2008 legislative session, but we cannot relax in our efforts to fight this! Now is the time to fight this thing, because you know that the ban supporters will be regrouping for the 2009 session. We need to keep this support going and growing over the coming year. Together we can fight this thing! --- The Wisconsin smoking ban is an outrageous violation of freedom that is based on questionable public health claims that are being perpetuated by special interest groups with the explicit goal of the complete abolition of smoking. The smoking ban was met with skepticism in the legislature last year, and with the support of the People of Wisconsin, we can help convince our State Representatives that this is not the right direction for Wisconsin. By signing this petition, you are hereby sending a message to Governor Doyle and the Wisconsin State Legislature that: We, The Undersigned, do hereby state that the Wisconsin State smoking ban is a gross abuse of legislative power and a violation of our freedom as residents of Wisconsin. The ban is based on questionable scientific studies and we demand irrefutable scientific evidence - not embellishments or assumptions - that environmental tobacco smoke (hereafter referred to as ETS) is a significant enough threat to public health to warrant such a blatant violation of our basic rights as citizens and business owners of Wisconsin. Furthermore, before accepting any restrictive ban on the citizens and businesses of the State Wisconsin, we demand concise clarification on the scientific evidence being used as evidence to support the claims put forth by Smoke Free Wisconsin et al. as justification for a smoking ban. We need to know why OSHA has refused to set danger limits for permissible exposure limits to ETS per 29 CFR 1910.1000 Standard Interpretation dated 24 February, 2003 if ETS is as harmful as claimed. We need to know how the bar and tavern worker air quality studies performed by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology found exposure to be far less than previous assumptions, yet the ban is being touted as \"protecting employees from ETS.\" Finally, we need to know about any and all financial ties between interested parties (such as ties between the American Cancer Society and pharmaceutical companies pushing smoking cessation products) so that a fair and honest analysis can be made regarding the proposed smoking ban\'s objectivity. Considering the serious state-wide repercussions from this law, justification is required, not vague interpretations of
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