110833841
To the Editor:
This week the members of the Philadelphia City Council will vote on legislation that would provide several exemptions to Philadelphia’s Clean Indoor Air and Worker Protection Law. A limited number of establishments applied for and were granted exemptions by the original deadline in April 2007. Why grant additional exemptions now when it will mean jeopardizing the health of every worker and every patron who visits these four establishments?
The American Heart Association is joined by many health advocacy partners, including the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and American Lung Association, in urging Council to defeat and reject these bills that fly in the face of fairness and jeopardize worker health.
Health advocates declared a major victory when Philadelphia’s Clean Indoor Air and Worker Protection Law went into effect in January ’07. At the time of passage, we celebrated a public health milestone that more Philadelphians than ever before would be protected from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke.
The members of City Council understand the dangers of second-hand smoke to human health. The evidence is clear that exposure to secondhand smoke wreaks immediate havoc on the body’s cardiovascular system and is a contributing factor to the development of heart disease and other cardiovascular diseases, leading to thousands of unnecessary heart attacks and deaths each year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, long-term exposure to second-hand smoke, such as exposure in a workplace, is associated with a 25 to 30 percent increased risk for coronary heart disease in adult non-smokers.
The legislation under consideration creates an unfair choice for Philadelphia’s workers in today’s tough economy: Should they risk working in a smoke-filled environment that may kill them in order to support their families? Philadelphia’s workers shouldn’t be forced to expose themselves to a toxic and harmful environment in order to have a job and a paycheck. Nothing about the science on the deadly effects of secondhand smoke has changed.
Less than a quarter of Philadelphians are smokers; the vast majority of Philadelphians don’t smoke and don’t want exposure to secondhand smoke. Enforcing the clean indoor air law comprehensively would protect all workers and the public from the harms of secondhand smoke exposure and would provide a level playing field for all city businesses without exception. Rather than allowing new exemptions, we should be phasing out the more than 70 exemptions that have already been granted.
The American Heart Association’s mission is to build healthier lives free of cardiovascular disease and stroke. We encourage City Council to join us in this mission by protecting all Philadelphians from the dangers of secondhand smoke, no exceptions.
Kenneth B. Margulies, M.D., F.A.H.A.
Professor of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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