Health and Sport Committee concealed evidence in petition hearing
(YouTube video no longer available)
On the 30th January, the Freedom-2-Choose (Scotland) blogsite published this:
http://f2cscotland.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/health-and-sport-committee-concealed.html
The video evidence contained shows how it took just six minutes to dismiss the will of the people, it also shows how this committee refused to even consider evidence regarding Air Management systems which would improve air quality not only in pubs and restaurants but the workplace in general. It is well known that the UK as a whole has been in violation of EU air standards Directive 2008/50/EC: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/air/quality/legislation/directive.htm for many years, and the Health and Sports Committee’s refusal to even look at the evidence is yet another violation of that directive.
The claim that air ventilation/filtration systems will not remove cigarette smoke are laughable, even way back in the 1970’s I witnessed first-hand just how effective they are as a guest aboard a U.S. Naval Gato class attack submarine. The process removed all odours providing clean air that was so pure that crews aboard them were often more susceptible to common colds when outside since the germs that caused them were also removed from the environment! Of course, Submarines are an enclosed environment so once the air is cleaned it stays clean despite tobacco smoke and cooking odours.
Pubs of course are not fully enclosed, yet today’s systems are perfectly capable of maintaining a higher air quality standard than the air we breathe walking to the pub, In addition, any contaminants that do get in when the doors are open are removed within minutes and less than a minute for some systems with very fast air change cycles.
ASH (Scotland) advise the Scottish Parliament and they maintain that air management systems do not clean tobacco smoke from the air. F2C Scotland attempted to present evidence to the contrary but the politicians, who represent the people of Scotland, silenced legitimate debate on the issue of air management. They have a duty to those they represent and who pay their salaries to take an unbiased look at the evidence and in this they have failed, preferring to yet again defer to an unelected charity over their duty to those they represent, to their everlasting shame. Sadly, the same complaint would very likely be equally true at Westminster.
The opening video shows quite dramatically how well these systems work. One thing is certain: if 200 cigarettes were smoked in a pub room simultaneously you would not even get close to the amount of smoke shown here. Equally certain is the fact that if a pub ever got that Smokey I would have left long before since the only logical conclusion I could have reached was that the place was on fire!