Smoking proponents are hazy on the truth
The column by David Crowley and Jolyn Tenn in the
Star-Bulletin on July 31 titled "Pro-smoking campaign gains power against Goliath" stretched facts, ignored reality and misapplied the Old Testament.
The pro-smoking campaign's main premise is that smoking restrictions are responsible for our slumping tourism numbers. Anyone who believes that has not resided in this world for the last eight years to witness erosions to our economy, geopolitical influence and standing in the world.
How has this erosion affected our tourism industry? Fuel costs alone affect every facet of our current existence, including travel. Astronomical fuel costs particularly hurt geographically distant island economies like ours, heavily reliant on tourism dollars.
If smoking were even remotely a factor that people considered when planning a vacation, consider Las Vegas. In Las Vegas, tourists may still smoke until their lungs atrophy -- yet Las Vegas is experiencing the same tourism slumps that we are.
In reference to Hawaii's smoke-free workplaces law, Crowley and Tenn claim that: "In January 2007, just one month later, the slide began, way before today's convenient excuses of airline closures, fuel charges, mortgage meltdowns, exploding gas prices and the plummeting dollar, just to name a few." The economy and tourism have been on a slow descent for a number of years, and while January 2007 was a very down month, the slide began in 2005. Furthermore, Japanese tourism was picking up nicely through the first eight months of 2007 before more weighty factors (that Crowley and Tenn call "convenient excuses") like exchange rates, airline seat capacity and fuel surcharges (now about $400 per ticket) started dragging us into the tank we're in now.
Families are faced with difficult financial choices. Every day the news is filled with people choosing between vacation travel and mortgage payments, or between food and medical care. To claim that Japanese travel decisions are primarily driven by smoke-free rules misrepresents reality in a particularly offensive way.
Those of us, including honorable elected officials, who champion breathable air for all are also offended by the misuse of Biblical analogy. Smoking proponents threaten us with "red lists" and "poke eye," claiming to be the heroic David to our evil Goliath.
The pro-smoking campaign is actually aligned with the real giant -- the tobacco industry. Let us not forget -- Big Tobacco's only mission is to sell death for profit.
Juan Moncada is a resident of Hilo and the policy chairman for Tobacco-Free Big Island.