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Why has Big Tobacco pushed ventilation "consultants" at the hospitality industry?
Tobacco industry documents show that it's all part of a political strategy to protect tobacco sales.
- Big Tobacco seeks to downplay secondhand smoke's unique dangers by treating it as a minor factor in general "indoor air quality."
- To derail simple, cost-free smokefree measures, Big Tobacco wants the hospitality industry to pay for costly, ineffective ventilation systems.
- Ignoring health dangers, Big Tobacco safeguards its own profits and leaves the hospitality industry legally exposed.
What should restaurant, bar, and casino owners keep in mind when approached by Big Tobacco's ventilation "consultants"?
- Ventilation is a political ploy to block smokefree measures and shift costs onto the hospitality industry.
- Ventilation systems costing tens of thousands of dollars may reduce odor, but fail to guard against secondhand smoke's real health dangers.
- Ventilation systems bind restaurants to Big Tobacco. Owners stampeded into shelling out for ventilation systems may feel they must fight smokefree measures to justify their purchase.
- Big Tobacco's ventilation "consultants" are salesmen. That's why they don't tell you going 100% smokefree is simpler, healthier, reduces litigation risk, pares expenses, and keeps your business growing.
How does Big Tobacco get researchers, scientists, and engineers to promote ventilation "non-solutions" and testify against smokefree measures?
- In every profession, a certain number of practitioners can be bought. Big Tobacco buys them.
- Shilling for Big Tobacco is lucrative. With $20 billion in U.S. tobacco sales at stake, opportunists rally to take Big Tobacco's money "before someone else does."
- Many of Big Tobacco's hired guns are purposely kept at arm's length, paid through law firms or fronts to preserve deniability and credibility.
Why has Big Tobacco worked for years to infiltrate and influence the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), America's leading professional HVAC engineering organization?
- ASHRAE's standards shape building codes around the world.
- Despite the tobacco industry's interference, ASHRAE's technical experts concluded that "source control" (smokefree buildings) is the only feasible way to protect the public from secondhand smoke,.
- ASHRAE indoor air standards dating back to 1999 assume no smoking in enclosed spaces.
- Big Tobacco's latest tactic is to promote a "separate standard" excepting restaurants, bars, and casinos from otherwise universal clean-air standards.
What does ASHRAE's most recent standard say about secondhand smoke and ventilation?
- [T]he only means of effectively eliminating health risks associated with indoor exposure is to ban smoking activity…
- No other engineering approaches, including current and advanced dilution ventilation or air cleaning technologies, have demonstrated or should be relied upon to control health risks from ETS [environmental tobacco smoke] exposure in spaces where smoking occurs…(2005)
How much does Big Tobacco want the hospitality industry to pay?
- Higher insurance, maintenance, and labor costs.
- Legal costs for tort claims by people exposed to secondhand smoke.
- Costs of ineffective ventilation systems imposed by Big Tobacco-backed "accommodation" laws.
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