Nonsmokers' World Conf. in DC This Weekend - Grad Students Invited For First Time

June 6, 2010 - PRLog -- Activists from around the world will gather this weekend in Washington D.C. to learn more about how to sue employers, landlords, universities, governments, and even smokers to help protect nonsmokers from the health hazards of secondhand and third hand tobacco smoke, and to prevent smokers for forcing nonsmokers to assume most of the financial costs from their habits, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf, who started the nonsmokers' rights movement by getting smoking restricted and then banned on airlines and in many public places.

Since the First World Conference on Nonsmokers' Rights was opened by the then U.S. Surgeon General, the emphasis has been on exploring and using new and novel law-related approaches to expanding and protecting the rights of nonsmokers.

Indeed, the primary focus of the Seventh World Conference on Nonsmokers' Rights will be a discussion of novel legal approaches which have been recently been used successfully -- including rulings for higher insurance rates for smokers, and bans on using e-cigarettes in public places -- and many which will be presented for evaluation and discussion by attendees for the first time.

Conference participants will also learn of new developments, including potential health problems posed by the use of e-cigarettes in places where conventional smoking is prohibited (including on airplanes), concerns and potential legal remedies related to third hand tobacco smoke, the application of the International Treaty on the Rights of People with Disabilities, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, and the Americans With Disabilities Act to protect especially sensitive nonsmokers, and many other topics, including protecting nonsmokers from the huge costs smokers currently impose on them. Conference participants will also help to plan strategies and tactics for the antismoking movement for the current year.

Even some conference participants may be surprised to learn how far nonsmokers have been able to go in using different legal and law-related techniques to protect nonsmokers' rights, and how the concept of any legal or moral right to smoke has been eviscerated. For example:
* many states now ban smoking in foster homes as well as in all cars when children are present
* some cities already ban smoking on sidewalks and in private apartments
* companies are increasingly firing or refusing to hire people who smoke even off the job
* even the AMA admits that the laws designed to protect smokers are ineffective and rarely if even enforced
* insurance companies -- and even Medicaid -- are charging smokers more for health insurance
* courts have removed children from the custody of smokers
* adoption agencies have refused to consider smokers as prospective parents
* hospitals and doctors sometimes refuse to perform certain operations on smokers
* almost half of major US companies plan to penalize employees who smoke, and the public increasingly supports it

The recently-passed health reform legislation [The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act] permits companies to charge smokers as much as 50% higher rates for health insurance than nonsmokers, a concept of incorporating personal responsibility into health care which Prof. Banzhaf advocated -- and has taken legal action to advance -- since the mid 1980s. This came on top of an earlier 2009 decision to increase the federal excise tax on cigarettes by 158% to $1.0l.

Nonsmokers' rights activists may seek to participate in this invitation-only conference by sending an email to Prof. Banzhaf at jbanzhaf@ash.org describing their background and interests.

Also, the National Center for Nonsmokers’ Rights has a few spaces available at the Conference for graduate students in the D.C. area who are interested in various fields including medicine and public health, international law and treaties, law and political science (including agency practice and regulation as well as legislation), economics, clean air and environmental issues generally, the role of NGOs in affecting policy and enforcing international treaties, and many other topics.

Graduate students residing in the D.C. area who might be interested in attending this invitation-only conference should send an email to Prof. Banzhaf jbanzhaf@ash.org describing their background and interests.

PROFESSOR JOHN F. BANZHAF III
Professor of Public Interest Law at GWU,
FAMRI Dr. William Cahan Distinguished Professor,
FELLOW, World Technology Network, and
Executive Director
National Center for Nonsmokers' Rights
2013 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006, USA
(202) 659-4310