Overview
Smoking is a hazard to people's health. Smoking kills more people than
alcohol, AIDS, car crashes, illegal drugs, murders, and suicides -
combined. Of all the illnesses and deaths that occur throughout the
state, smoking-related occurrences are the most preventable.
Tobacco
companies make a product that kills 440,000 Americans a year, which is
1,200 Americans a day. The kicker is that not only does the tobacco
industry produce a lethal substance that kills hundreds of thousands of
Americans a year, but it also purposefully spikes tobacco with specific
ingredients in order to make tobacco so addictive that people will
struggle for years, even their entire lives, to give up the deadly
habit without success.
Why,
you may ask, does the tobacco industry knowingly and purposefully
produce a deadly substance that is hard to give up? The answer is
money. Additionally, the industry spends billions of dollars every year
on advertising that targets young people. By targeting a young
population, the tobacco industry ensures that these youngsters will be
tobacco customers for life.
In
order to make even more money, tobacco companies are wielding their
power to block a law in Colorado that would protect people from second
hand smoke. Second hand smoke leads to 53,000 deaths a year and the
Centers for Disease Control has concluded that there is no safe level
of exposure to secondhand smoke, the third leading cause of preventable
death in America. As a result, nearly 1,000 cities and several states
have taken action to protect its citizens by banning smoking inside of
all workplaces, including bars and restaurants.
Colorado's
restaurant and bar workers are most at risk. Many of Colorado workers
can't avoid the second hand smoke and have to spend 8 hours a day
breathing in second hand smoke. In a smoke filled room for one shift of
8 hours the workers are smoking the equivalent of 1 to 2 packs a day.
Restaurant and bar workers are the only remaining unprotected work
force.
We
can use local laws to beat big tobacco. It is time that someone
countered the power and influence of the big tobacco companies, like
Phillip Morris and RJ Reynolds. And that is exactly what we at CoPIRG
are doing. With your help, we have a chance to win ordinances to ban
smoking from all workplaces including bars and restaurants in Colorado.
But we'll need your help - we expect the tobacco lobbyists to push back hard...
