Advocates are rallying for Clean Indoor Air legislation, which would prohibit smoking in all workplaces, including restaurants and bars, and is intended to protect workers and the general public from the proven dangers of exposure to large amounts of secondhand tobacco smoke. Please complete this form and send to your Legislator and Senator to tell them you support a comprehensive, clean indoor air law.
Fact:
Three-thousand Pennsylvanians die each year as a result of the health
conditions caused from breathing in someone else's tobacco smoke.1
Fact:
For every eight smokers that die from the effects of their own tobacco use, one nonsmoker dies from the effects of secondhand smoke.2
Fact:
84 percent of Pennsylvanians believe that all workers should be protected from exposure to secondhand smoke in the workplace.2
Fact:
Waitresses are almost four times more likely to die of lung cancer compared to workers in other fields, and bartenders face a 50 percent greater risk of dying from lung cancer, other cancers, and heart disease than other workers.3
Fact:
Secondhand smoke is harmful and hazardous to the health of the general public, and particularly dangerous to children. It is a proven cause of lung cancer, heart disease, serious respiratory illnesses, low birth weight and sudden infant
death syndrome.4
As a resident of your district, I am writing to you to express my strong support for a comprehensive clean indoor air law for Pennsylvania. Your support of a bill that would protect me and all Pennsylvanians from the deadly effects of exposure to secondhand smoke in public places and workplaces is greatly needed.
I am one of nearly 9.5 million Pennsylvanians – 76 percent of the state's citizenry – who want clean indoor air and want your support of this lifesaving legislation.
It appalls me that, because of secondhand smoke, waitresses are nearly four times more likely to die of lung cancer compared to other workers and that bartenders face a 50-percent greater risk of dying from lung cancer than workers in other professions. It is not fair that a pregnant waitress must breathe the toxic and poisonous pollutants in secondhand smoke and risk having a low birth weight baby, simply because her work environment is not smoke-free. Involuntary exposure to secondhand smoke is a serious public health hazard that can be prevented by making all public places smoke-free.
According to the American Cancer Society, nonsmoking sections of restaurants do not provide adequate protection. Sitting in a nonsmoking section of a restaurant for two hours is equal to smoking one-and-a-half cigarettes. A nonsmoker sitting behind a smoker in a bar for two hours will breathe in the equivalent of four cigarettes.
Big tobacco companies are spending millions of dollars to try and beat back clean indoor air legislation and it is time to stand up to them and their high-priced lobbyists. Big tobacco does not need more advocates in Harrisburg. The 9.5 million Pennsylvanians who want a clean indoor air law need your support. Do the right thing and vote YES for a comprehensive clean indoor air law.
Thank you.
