Page 3161 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 20 September 1994
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MRS CARNELL: Look, it may be a problem. What we are accepting at this stage is that there may be a problem. Certainly, tobacco smoking is a problem; we all accept that. What we have done is go down the track of amendments which give smoke-free areas right across the board - not just in restaurants, but in bistros, clubs, casinos, the whole kit and caboodle - if you put in ventilation systems to ensure that the air is as good as external air, as outdoor air. That is the evidence that we have in front of us at the moment, no matter how much you shake your head, Mr Connolly. Put the evidence in front of the committee.
Mr Connolly: You are premising on that standard again.
MRS CARNELL: No, we are not. What I read from ASH is not an answer; it is not a complete solution; it is part of a solution. The major part of the solution is simply not to have people who smoke in the same areas of the establishment as people who do not smoke. That is the obvious approach. Add to that the ventilation standards and, potentially, we have a solution, at least at this stage of scientific evidence, that will achieve the harm minimisation standards that we hope we can achieve in any legislative way. People have rights, and that is something that this Government seems to totally overlook. People have rights; smokers have rights, and non-smokers have rights. It is simply wrong to suggest, for some sort of politically correct reason, that smokers all of a sudden, doing something that is totally legal, have absolutely no rights.
MR BERRY (9.29): Here is the evidence. The US Environmental Protection Agency in a study by Repace and Lowry measured 226 times the accepted level of carcinogens in places ventilated to the equivalent of Australian Standard 1668. Is that enough evidence for you? No, it is not enough for Mrs Carnell.
Mrs Carnell: Where is the cancer risk?
MR BERRY: For cancer it is only 226 times. What a joke! Amongst your health worker peers, Mrs Carnell, you will be laughed at.
Madam Speaker, earlier I made the accusation that the committee attempted to mislead this Assembly in its assessment of ventilation standards. I am going to demonstrate where that, in fact, has occurred. There is the much-vaunted full chapter - a whole chapter, according to Mr Moore - on occupational health and safety. I have to say that that whole chapter consists of two pages in a 45-page report. So, there was a great deal of emphasis on it! The committee relied upon some evidence submitted by the FLAIEU which stated:
In order to reduce the exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in enclosed spaces, it is necessary to provide effective ventilation and filtration systems in the occupied area.
Debate interrupted.
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