HSB Tobacconist

Let's get involved!

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Greetings

My name is Tony Palazzolo and I work with Bill Hannegan and the group Keep St Louis Free.  Bill was one of the main players that help defeat the county smoking ban in 2005 and 2006. We are currently working on defeating the St Louis City smoking ban.

As many of you may know Councilman Barbara Fraser proposed a smoking ban and that it be put on the November Ballot.  We oppose this for several reasons.

The public and business owners already get tovote.  Nearly 60% of St Louis County restaurants are already completely smoke-free by choice.  Employees and consumers can easily avoid smoking allowed establishments.

We believe in the property rights of the business owner.  They alone should determine if smoking is allowed or disallowed in their business.  The economic damage from smoking bans is real.  Nearly all of the economic studies showing that business is not harmed are done by public health advocates.  They are not motivated or trained to discover the truth.  We have had four economist that have studied smoking ban weigh in on the St Louis City Ban.  All agreed that smoking bans would hurt bar and restaurant business.  

The health risk of second hand smoke are vastly over hyped.  While no one will argue that it is good for you, the  notion that second hand smoke is more dangerous than actual smoking is simply ludicrous.  Many studies have shown no correlation to illness from second smoke exposure.  The two largest studies done to date have shown no correlation.  One is from UCLA and one is from The World Health Organization.  An excellent site to read about how studies and statistics are used to push bans is here  http://www.davehitt.com/facts/

Whynow?  This is a guess, but I would bet a fairly accurate one.  Council woman Fraser is running for the 24th State Senate Seat.  Quarterly reports came out last week and she is well behind her opponent Sam Page in fundraising.  She needed a way to get her nameout and bring in more money.  She only asked for the legislation to be written up on Monday for the Tuesday meeting.   She also now has leverage to ask for a nice donation from the Casinos.  She is in favor of exempting the casinos.  You can read about this here:

http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/political-fix/political-fix/2009/07/campaign-in-24th-state-senate-district-may-be-expensive/ ;

What can you do?  First thing you can do is contact your councilman.  You can find their information here:  http://www.co.st-louis.mo.us/Council/

Then show up at the council hearings.  The next one is this upcoming Tuesday, July 28th 6pm at 41 S Central Ave, Clayton MO (CountyAdministrative Building).  This bill is moving quickly and most likely will be voted on within two weeks.  If you have an interest in stopping this bill, please contact your councilman and attend the hearings.  Also pass this along to all those interested.

Lastly- as a person who works hard to pay taxes and provide for my family.  One of few things I get to do for myself is enjoy a nice cigar.  I should be free to enjoy a cigar at an establishment that wants and allows it.  If we don't stand up for our freedoms now we will surely lose them.

For updates you can look on the Keep St Louis Free website: http://keepstlouisfree.blogspot.com/  ;

Thanks for your time and support

Tony Palazzolo 

Tony Palazzolo Office (314) 630-5332

Fax 800-487-0965