By Norman E. Kjono

The Bellingham Herald, Wednesday February 4, 2004 "County: Ban Public Smoking,”  by Mark Porter:  

"The council, acting in its capacity as the county Board of Health, voted unanimously Tuesday to send a letter saying that to local legislators in Olympia . Its vote came after council members heard from county workers about local smoking-prevention strategies and from a local anti-tobacco advocate about the danger of secondhand smoke. Councilwoman Barbara Brenner said smokers have the right to "poison themselves." "They don't have the right to poison other people," she said. Council members Dan McShane and Sam Crawford did not attend the meeting."

It is interesting that the County Council, acting in its capacity as the county Board of Health, “voted unanimously” to send a letter to legislators in Olympia, when two of its members did not attend the meeting and therefore apparently did not vote. All members present may have so voted, but did that vote represent the intent of all council members?  Judging by an email received from Whatcom County council member Sam Crawford, the answer is no.  (See Councilman Crawford's email to FORCES columnist Norman Kjono below)

It looks as if another "Anti" screecher has presented herself, this time in Bellingham , Washington . For other anti-tobacco activists and supporters that have a propensity to screech negative labels about their fellow citizens, see my commentary “Susan Paynter: Ridiculing Her Neighbors,”  posted February 3, 2004. As money from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation flows into the state to support a statewide smoking ban that benefits its special-interest pharmaceutical constituents' agenda the hate talk predictably increases. Whatcom County Councilwoman Barbara Brenner joins Washington Secretary of Health Mary C. Selecky, Seattle attorney Paul Lawrence (counsel for Pierce County from Preston Gates & Ellis regarding its failed smoking ban) and Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Susan Paynter in negatively labeling and unfavorably stereotyping persons who smoke, to advance a personal-preference “Smoke Free” agenda.

This time a subtle distinction is presented by Councilwoman Brenner: smokers "poison" nonsmokers, rather than killing them, as Selecky and Lawrence claimed with certainty. Of course, poisoning others leads to death, too, so perhaps Ms. Brenner’s proclamation is a distinction without a meaningful difference. Columnist Susan Paynter added a new variation to advocates’ toilet tongue by claiming that smokers deprive their nonsmoking fellow citizens of a basic right to life. It seems to me that were public health officials, county leaders, columnists, and lawyers to spend as much time actually working on and reporting about transportation, low income housing, food for families, and other important issues in Washington as they do figuring our how to negative label their “Target Group” of choice we would begin to see meaningful progress in our state. Regardless of the apparently never-ending forms of demeaning others to garner professional, economic or political advantage that flow from the pens of elitist advocates takes, it still comes down to the same thing: proclaiming unfounded negative labels and cheering on false unfavorable stereotypes about targeted Washington citizens to promote a special-interest pharmaceutical agenda.

Rather than simply making steady progress on important matters such as transportation, housing, and food, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation thinks we should be pursuing perfection. Readers may be interested in one example of the foundation’s influence in Whatcom County, Washington through a $20.9 million nationwide agenda for “bold steps” in health care, “Pursuing Perfection: Bold Steps for Improving Health Care:”

PRINCETON, N.J. (April 2,2002) - The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) today announced that 12 health care organizations will continue to seek dramatic improvements in the care they provide patients in the second phase of the groundbreaking $20.9 million initiative, Pursuing Perfection: Raising the Bar for Health Care Performance.

"We think that all the organizations participating in Pursuing Perfection can help the nation understand that near-perfect health care, as shown by measurable results, is within our grasp," said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., senior vice president and director of the Health Care Group of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "We expect that these organizations will produce compelling examples that show health care professionals and the public just how good our health care can and should be."

11. St. Joseph Hospital * - St. Joseph Hospital is one of five hospitals within PeaceHealth, a not-for-profit, faith-based health care system serving Washington State , Alaska and Oregon . The 253-bed facility in Bellingham , Wash. , is the sole hospital serving Whatcom County . It has a staff or more than 300 physicians.

            When reading the foundation’s announcement about its April 2002, $20.9 million program, in which St. Joseph ’s Hospital participates, in context of Ms. Bremmer’s statement about poisoning others one gets the impression that the perfection to be pursued is as much about how to raise stereotyping, labeling and stigmatizing “Target Group” Washington citizens to a new social advocacy art form as it is about delivering quality health care. Apparently a “Bold Step” forward for public health is to demean, vilify, unfavorably stereotype, negatively label and stigmatize selected members of our own communities. Along with the bucks from special-interests we always get their agenda, too. In this case the tobacco control agenda speaks for itself in the lowest and most crass terms.

            There is also a new twist to The Herald’s reporting about the Whatcom County Health Board’s call for the legislature to end smoking in all public places because the article contains two statements that appear to be quite misleading:

First, the article says “A 1985 state law prohibits smoking in public places.” That statement creates a false impression that smoking has been banned in all Washington places where the public goes for the past 19 years, from which it follows any person who smokes in any public place is violating a 1985 law. That is not true, the 1985 law included specific exemptions for several businesses and did not even ban smoking in offices. Mr. Porter seems to take a rather cavalier approach as to what is a “public” building, preferring the anti-tobacco definition that includes any place the public goes, which intentionally violates property rights of private citizens and businesses. While neither I am not a lawyer, even a layman’s review of the 1985 law to which he refers makes it clear that it applies to buildings owned by the taxpaying public, such as courthouses and government facilities. I am disappointed to see such carefully crafted words by a news reporter that appear to create intentionally misleading impressions about what state law actually says. Perhaps Mr. Porter and The Herald should hire competent counsel the next time Mr. Porter chooses to interpret state law for readers. Then again, it occurs to me that smoking ban counsel for Pierce County might even agree with Mr. Porter.

Second, Mr. Porter touts the anti-tobacco party line that “Smoking causes preventable health problems that kill more than 8,000 residents a year . . .” Had Mr. Porter done his own homework, rather than apparently regurgitating what anti tobacco activists say, he would have uncovered a few important facts. If Mr. Porter had gone to the state health department and requested statistical data about death certificates on available on CD, as I did several years ago, he could have easily determined that the number of deaths attributed to tobacco use in Washington is almost precisely the same as the number of death certificates that have a box marked indicating the decedent has smoked within the past 15 years. Which means that one could have quit smoking 14 ½ years ago, become a “Caffeine Free” Tri-athlete champion who subsists on “Fat Free” tofu, and been a “Smoke Free” member of the Tobacco-Free Washington Coalition since its inception, yet still be recorded as a “smoking related” death, even though they died from stepping in front of an express-lane city bus. I am disappointed to see that a reporter for the Bellingham Herald apparently did not look into the source of the alleged 8,000 deaths per year from smoking in Washington .

The devil is most often found in the details. In the case of Washington tobacco control advocacy the negative labeling and unfavorably stereotyping devil that may rise in some souls to garner professional, economic, or political advantage appears to be expediently applied to gloss over details as to what state law says and how many people actually die from causes directly related to tobacco use. I believe that should be embarrassing to normal people who reside in Washington .

Norman E. Kjono

From: Sam Crawford 
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2004 6:22 PM
To: Norman Kjono
Subject: Good followup

Norm,

Just read your e-mail to the County Council. You offer some valid  points and observations.

As you observed, I regrettably was unable to attend the Board of Health  meeting yesterday. After the meeting, when I arrived at the Council  Office, I was asked to sign a letter stating that I supported  tobacco-restrictive legislation. I replied "no" without hesitation. 

I am not a tobacco user, and as the Council's representative to the  Whatcom County Substance Abuse Advisory Board, I've had quite a bit of  exposure to the implications and problems associated with tobacco use.  I also am an advocate of programs promoting abstinence from tobacco  products as a healthy and better choice for members of our society,  especially youth.

But I am also cognizant of the cultural and historical norms of our  society. Some people smoke because of habit, and some people smoke for  pleasure. There are a lot of things out there that are "bad" for us,  including alcohol, tobacco, LDL Cholesterol, the Lottery, not dressing  warmly on cold days, sunburns, wetlands depletion, and internet bank  account solicitations from Nigeria, to name just a few.

I'm really tired of the ongoing efforts to eliminate every perceived  "risk" in the world ( and quite frankly, in my own life) through the  legislative process.

There are choices folks make, and many (not all) choose to go to  smoke-filled bars. I choose to not patronize those places. That's my  choice. Not one of my constituents in Whatcom County (and there's  about 175,000 of them) has contacted me to say this is a problem that  is affecting them personally. I have a feeling those who are concerned  about the matter stay out of smoke-filled bars, also.

A friend of mine is the owner of a well-known fine dining restaurant in  Whatcom County. He went "smoke-free" years ago, because he felt in the  long run it would be good for business. But he is adamantly opposed to  a law requiring no tobacco use, even though it would "level the playing  field" when it comes to his lucrative but competitive bar business.   It's a business, marketing, personal health, and perhaps moral choice  that both business owners, and their patrons, should continue to make.

Sam Crawford
Whatcom County Council