PennPIRG Testimony

Testimony in Support of Smoke-free Workplaces

 

To:  House Health and Human Services Committee

From:  James Browning, Director

Date:  May 31, 2007

Chairman Oliver and members of the Committee, thank you for this opportunity to speak to you about expanding smoke-free workplace laws in Pennsylvania. 

By way of introduction, I recently led the campaign for smoke-free workplaces in Maryland as Director of the American Cancer Society’s Clean Indoor Air Campaign, and chair of the statewide coalition of groups supporting smoke-free legislation in Maryland.  I also served as Executive Director of Common Cause Maryland, and wrote numerous reports on the role of campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures by tobacco companies in shaping public policy.

Health Issues

Last summer, U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona issued a comprehensive scientific report which concludes that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke.  The report finds that even brief secondhand smoke exposure can cause immediate harm, and concludes that the only way to protect nonsmokers from the dangerous chemicals in secondhand smoke is to eliminate smoking indoors.  For this reason, PennPIRG supports a ban on smoking in restaurants, bars, private clubs, and casinos.

Ventilation Issues

Can ventilation protect workers from the effects of secondhand smoke exposure?  According to a 2005 position paper by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE):

“No engineering approaches, including current and advanced dilution ventilation or air cleaning technologies, have been demonstrated or should be relied upon to control health risks from ETS [environmental tobacco smoke] exposure in spaces where smoking occurs.”

ASHRAE concluded:

“At present, the only means of effectively eliminating health risk associated with indoor exposure [to secondhand smoke] is to ban smoking activity.” 

Economic Issues

Tobacco companies have long predicted ruin for smokefree restaurants and bars, but newly released, internal documents show their lack of confidence in their own predictions.  As far back as 1994, Philip Morris marketing and sales director David Laufer compared the industries attempts to generate opposition to smoke-free bars and restaurants to its failed attempts to convince people that smokers would not fly on smoke-free airlines or attend events at smoke-free stadiums:

 

“...economic arguments often used by the [tobacco] industry to scare off smoking ban activity are no longer working, if indeed they ever did. These arguments simply had no credibility with the public, which isn't surprising when you consider our dire predictions in the past rarely came true.”

 

Indeed, a study from that same year found no negative economic impact on bars and restaurant profits in the first 15 American cities to ban smoking in these establishments.[1]  Since then other studies of smoke-free establishments in New York, California, and other states have found that smoke-free laws have not harmed, and have even boosted profits, for smoke-free establishments.

 

 

More broadly, secondhand smoke exposure has a profound effect on health care and other economic costs.  In 2005, I collaborated with Dr. Hugh Waters of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health on a study of the nearly $600 million economic impact of secondhand smoke exposure in Maryland, covering higher health care costs, and costs due to premature mortality and decreased worker productivity.  Specifically, the study found that secondhand smoke exposure was responsible for

• 1,577 adult deaths
• 24 child deaths
• Costs due to childhood illness and death--$73.8 million.
• Costs due to adult illness and death--$523.8 million.

 

Secondhand smoke-exposure also has a major economic impact in Pennsylvania—reducing worker productivity, increasing health care costs for businesses and individuals, and contributing to soaring Medicaid costs.  According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, here are these costs for our state.

 

Smoking-Caused Monetary Costs in Pennsylvania

Annual health care costs in Pennsylvania directly caused by smoking	$5.19 billion
- Portion covered by the state Medicaid program	$1.7 billion
Residents' state & federal tax burden from smoking-caused government expenditures	$680 per household
Smoking-caused productivity losses in Pennsylvania	$4.63 billion

 

 

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