4 The Hampton Roads Messenger Editorial


Is Cigarette Smoke Being Used as a Chemical Weapon Against US Citizens?


cigarettes to make the smoke linger? I was playing golf recently and my golf partner and I had not seen anyone else playing on the course for a while. Either the other golfers were far enough in front of us or behind us that we had not come into eye contact with them. When we arrived on one of the greens, I mentioned to my partner that I smelled cigarette smoke. Sure enough, when we finished putting, we saw a discarded cigarette


butt on the edge of the


green. What kind of smoke lingers outside long after the smoker is out of sight? Because secondhand smoke is made up of very tiny


BY ANGELA JONES With more than 7,000 chemicals,


and most of them highly toxic, who would willingly expose their neighbors, friends and family to the lethal dose of poisons delivered by cigarette smoke? A person who is addicted, that’s who. Family members of smokers, people who live in apartments or condos and those who have to enter the entrance of a building where smokers congregate are all involuntarily


victims of the


secondhand smoke dangers of tobacco. In addition to dying from lung cancer, many nonsmoker


are suffering from


other ailments that they may not know can be attributed to their exposure to cigarette smoke.


According to the American


Cancer Society, “Non-smokers who breathe in SHS (secondhand smoke) take in nicotine and toxic chemicals by the same route smokers do. The more SHS you breathe,


the higher


the level of these harmful chemicals in your body.” The American Cancer Society’s website also states that of the more than 7,000 chemical compounds in tobacco smoke, “More than 250 of these chemicals are known to be harmful, and at least 69 are known to cause cancer.”


One can rarely go anywhere in the US and not encounter someone smoking. The pervasiveness of the tobacco smoke makes even smoke-free buildings danger zones when one has to fight their way through the lingering cigarette smoke employees and others have left outside the entrances.


intentionally


Are tobacco companies adding


something to particles


it is more easily absorbed into the body’s cells. If that is not a chemical weapon, I do not know what is. If one can smell cigarette smoke, they are being harmed by cigarette smoke.


Cigarettes are exempt from some of the toxic chemical


use


regulations put in place by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). For instance, the FDA regulates menthol in products such as cold medicine and throat lozenges;


there is no federal regulation of the menthol


in cigarettes.


however, According


to smokefree.gov, some research shows that menthol cigarettes may be more addictive than non-menthol cigarettes. About 90% of cigarettes marketed


in the United States


contain menthol, even if they are not advertised as menthol cigarettes. The site also admits that “Studies and evidence from tobacco industry documents showed that, in the past, the tobacco industry has a history of marketing menthol cigarettes to women, youth, and minority racial/ ethnic groups.”


Some of the dangers attributed to exposure to secondhand smoke, which are listed on smokefree. gov, include cancer, heart disease, breathing problems, SIDS, low birth weight babies, weak lungs, severe asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia and ear infections. Smokefree.gov is a federal government run website. The United States government has all of the facts and figures about how cigarette smoke harms US citizens. For these reason, I believe America should look within itself to protect its citizens from harmful chemicals before it comments on chemicals being used against citizens of other countries.


Tom Wheeler, Chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission BY JOSEPH TORRES AND STEVEN RENDEROS Last month, more than 200


activists gathered outside the Federal Communications Commission to speak out against a proposal that would create a separate but unequal Internet.


introduced


FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler rules


that would allow


Internet service providers like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon to discriminate online by creating fast lanes for those who can pay for preferential treatment — and slow lanes for the rest of us.


The proposal would destroy the


open Internet and the principle of Net Neutrality, which requires ISPs to treat all Web traffic equally.


The public pressure to adopt


strong Net Neutrality protections has intensified since a federal court struck down the Commission’s previous rules in January. The court ruled the FCC could adopt Net Neutrality protections — but only if it first reasserted its legal authority to do so by treating ISPs as common carriers. This would prevent ISPs from interfering with or discriminating against Web traffic.


Since then, more than 3 million people have called on the FCC to reclassify and designate common carriers. urged their


ISPs as members


Thousands have of Congress


to put pressure on the FCC to do the right thing. And on Thursday, protestors rallied outside the FCC to keep up the pressure on Wheeler. The commissioners’ open meeting was also interrupted several times by activists denouncing the chairman’s plan.


During the meeting, Wheeler


claimed his proposal wouldn’t create fast and slow lanes online. But his rhetoric failed to match reality. His proposal would allow discrimination online. It would gut Net Neutrality and the openness of the Internet.


Established 2006 Angela Jones, Publisher Chris Parks, Editor


Rae Willis, Graphic Designer Ida Davis, Contributing Writer


PO Box 10414 ● Norfolk, VA 23513


Sales and Information 757-575-1863 info@hamptonroadsmessenger.com Copyright pertaining to contents of this edition. All rights reserved.


A former lobbyist for the cable and wireless industries, Wheeler appears more concerned about serving the interests of large ISPs at the expense of our rights to speak freely and assemble online.


A pay-for-play Internet would create a separate and unequal Internet


where those with the most money could speak the loudest. It would silence


the voices of the most


marginalized members of our society by relegating them to the slow lane.


Allowing for online


discrimination would make it harder for Latino activists to organize and fight our nation’s immoral deportation policy. It would make it harder for small-business owners of color to compete against


larger corporations


online. And it would make it harder for our communities to tell out stories and challenge the media’s stereotypical portrayals of people of color.


But not all is lost. The FCC has opened up a


public comment period that will last throughout the summer. We can use this time to organize and push the agency to restore Net Neutrality.


This will be a long and hard


fight. The biggest phone and cable companies have deep pockets and will do whatever it takes to ensure the FCC adopts industry-friendly rules.


that


But the rally is the latest sign public


outrage over Wheeler’s


proposal is intensifying. This week, 36 members of the


Congressional Progressive Caucus,


including its co-chairs Rep. Raul Grijalva and Rep. Keith Ellison and civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, called on the Commission to pass strong Net Neutrality protections.


Last week, 11 Democratic


senators, including Sens. Cory Booker, Al Franken and Elizabeth Warren, also called on the chairman to treat ISPs as common carriers.


In addition, two of Wheeler’s fellow Democratic commissioners


FCC have raised serious


reservations about his proposal and nearly 150 Internet companies and almost 100 organizations have called on the Commission to adopt rules that ban online discrimination.


The fight to prevent a separate but


unequal Internet is a long way from being decided.


We urge you to make your voices heard. Speak up to protect your online digital rights.


Read the Hampton Roads Messenger online 24/7 www.hamptonroadsmessenger.com


Volume 8 Number 10 Your Opinion Matters


Protest Grows Against FCC’s Plan for Tiered Internet


June 2014


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