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December 1, 2009

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Letter: Tobacco industry is hard to fight

Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2004 | 9 a.m.

Sandra Hanson's important, well reasoned Letter to the Editor on Jan. 18 headlined, "Smoking in public places is act of terrorism," asks the question, "Why doesn't our Legislature do something to protect us from smoking addicts?"

If legislators are smokers, it is less than likely that they can hear the message of the vast majority -- especially if they are funded by the tobacco industry that works full time in the halls of all state legislatures. When a political candidate emerges to announce his intention to end smoker abuse, political funding dries up and the candidate loses the election.

But the smoking culture may be changing as we marvel at the significant increase in restaurant sales in California and New York since those states banned smoking in public dining areas. Also, smoking in public places is now banned in Ireland, where 37 percent of the population smokes.

My question for the Nevada public: Does your state assemblyman or senator smoke?

ARNO SEEGERS

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