According to an article printed today in the St. Charles Journal, Dr.
Filippo Ferrigni, medical director of St. Joseph Health Center in St.
Charles, made this statement to the St. Charles City Council:

“If you’re a nonsmoking waitress working in a restaurant that allows
smoking, you are essentially smoking the equivalent of 20 cigarettes
throughout an eight-hour workday.”

I want to warn the Council that “20 cigarettes” is a highly misleading
number. Dr. Ferrigni is really saying that one chemical, NDMA
(N-nitroso-dimethylamine), is more present in secondhand smoke than in
actively inhaled smoke. According to some experts, it takes 16 or 20
cigarettes actively smoked to equal the NDMA exposure a bartender receives
after eight hours at work in a smoky bar. But does this mean that a
nonsmoker becomes almost a-pack-a-day passive smoker by taking a job in a
smoky bar as Dr. Ferrigni’s statement implies? Hardly. According to tests
done by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the
actual smoke a bartender breathes in the smokiest bar as measured by total
tobacco-specific particles inhaled equals about one-fifth of a cigarette
per eight-hour shift, or one cigarette per 40-hour week.

http://www.ehponline.org/members/1999/Suppl-2/341-348jenkins/jenkins-full.html

Officials in St. Peters and St. Charles concerned about the possible impact of a smoking ban should look at the research of Federal Reserve economist Dr. Michael Pakko:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/econ/pakko/mpbans.html

Is this global warming or the end of the world as we know it? These extreme conditions including hot temps and non-stop thunderstorms is incredible. What’s up with that ???

Hubbard down 20 pts in poll.

I have a question. Barack Obama is being called an African American. His father is a black Kenyan and his mother a white Kansasan. Since he is half white and half black, why is he called African-American? The way I see it, shouldn’t he be called a bi-racial candidate albeit with brown skin? By comparisan, Gov. Bill Richardson’s father was Caucasian and his mother Hispanic, and he promotes himself as a Hispanic.
I think Sen. Obama should be called the first bi-racial candidate for president.
And Bill, for gosh sakes, please stop smoking!

Impressed with the folks fielded by Mike Garman this weekend at TJ day. It’s an uphill battle, but it would be great to see Akin get a real challenge.

I must agree, BILL ENOUGH WITH THE SMOKING!
Although I did think of you when I signed a petition asking for at St. Louis wide smoking band last week. From the looks of it, so did many other people.
If St. Charles passes this (I doubt they will) I will gladly patronize their establishments as a thank you.

Rick where are these polling results? Can anyone else view them or are these “internal numbers” you just made up

Richard, when you signed that petition you should not have thought about me. Rather you should have thought about Columbia bar owner Joel Thiel who bravely fought against the Columbia smoking ban before losing his health insurance, his house and finally his bar to a silly ban:

http://www.showmenews.com/2007/Dec/20071229News003.asp

And don’t worry about my smoking. Like many St. Louisans, I only allow myself to enjoy a smoke with my beer.

Richard, so Dr. Filippo Ferrigni, medical director of St. Joseph Health Center in St. Charles, gives essentially false testimony to the St. Charles City Council about smoking bans and you are okay with that? If you owned a bar in the City of St. Charles, I bet you would feel differently!