Air filtration expert pans 'scripted' presentations
Pub Date: 1/1/2003
BOWLERS FORCED tO GO outside to smoke cause delays and other problems, according to a recent study.
Anti-smoking activists are reactionary zealots who rely on emotion rather than science to make their points, and who will stop at nothing to accomplish their goals, according to some critics, including one air filtration system technician who has testified at numerous hearings.
Among those economic interests hurt by smoking bans are companies that make air cleaning systems, says Scott Roberts of Honeywell's Commercial Air Products in Florida. Roberts has testified at numerous legislative and municipal hearings since the 1990s, lending his expertise about commercial air filtration systems to the proceedings.
In return for his testimony, Roberts says, he has been called everything from a liar to a killer by anti-smoking activists.
"They'll stop at nothing. They're social engineers. I'm a salesman. I'm the bad guy," says Roberts.
As many as a hundred million American citizens may now be affected by anti-smoking laws, he says, and that is having a big impact on his business.
Roberts has presented information from any number of studies--private, government and military--that show that air filtration devices dramatically improve indoor air quality. Yet the information he presents is either rejected or ignored by anti-smoking activists, who claim that even tiny amounts of pollutants from second-hand smoke can cause illness and even death.
Yet only about 8 percent of all indoor air quality problems nationwide come from cigarette smoke, and most indoor pollutants come from any variety of sources besides cigarettes, Roberts says. Indeed, the fumes from restaurant kitchens frequently contain more contaminants than what is produced from cigarette smoke, he says.
"Common sense does not prevail. This is social engineering. People want to get rid of smoking as a lifestyle," says Roberts. "I can't fight the battle anymore."
Roberts notes that he is not allowed to provide either legal or health advice, nor can he act as a lobbyist. And in general, he adds, those who testify on behalf of the efficacy of air filtration systems cannot, because of concerns over potential liability, make concrete claims that their devices will prevent health problems from indoor air pollutants.
Yet it has been clearly demonstrated that such systems can clean air to a higher standard than federal Environmental Protection Agency standards--and certainly much cleaner than outdoor air quality in city streets, says Roberts. Meanwhile, anti-smoking activists routinely make claims about health effects from second-hand smoke that are not based on solid science--and those claims are presented as gospel.
"This isn't a technical issue, it's just so staunchly political," he adds. "I have been beat up. They've convinced everybody that there is no way to set a level or set a standard."
The Honeywell representative says he has seen and heard the same parade of supposedly expert witnesses at hearing after hearing, and adds, "This is scripted ... If you've seen one, you've seen 'em all. It's like the Ringling Brothers, it's so well-orchestrated."
At one California hearing he attended, one woman was dressed as a nun, speaking about the problems she had seen first hand from cigarette smoke. When asked if she was a "lady of the cloth," she replied that she was not, but simply liked to dress in that fashion.
Subsequently, says Roberts, it was discovered that this supposedly "average citizen" was paid $5,000 by anti-smoking activists to give her testimony.
Anti-smoking zealots are extremely well-funded, well-organized and virtually giddy about their ongoing successes, but they don't care one whit about the effects of smoking bans on small business owners or what those bans do to lifetime economic investments, he adds.
Education, rather than regulation, will deal with problems arising from cigarette smoking--and other unhealthy lifestyles--and without devastating businesses, he says.
Rather than instituting blanket smoking bans that hurt taverns and other businesses, says Roberts, "The government would be much better served spending all their time and energy educating people on the woes of smoking."
Source: The ABL Leader, August, 2005, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.