Dear Honorable Governor Pataki,

     I am writing to you as a private citizen.  I have no affiliation
with any tobacco company.  I am a dues paying member of the National
Smokers Alliance but I am not in coordination with them in my efforts to
speak on the behalf of smoking adults residing in New York State.

     The following is a letter I have written to the Voice of the People
section of the New York Daily News in response to an editorial imploring
that you sign a bill passed by the Assembly last week requiring tobacco
companies to make and sell cigarettes in New York State that are
self-extinguishing:

"Re: "Up in smoke" editorial of April 19th.  Propaganda towards creating
a smoke-free society rears it's ugly head yet again.  This time it is by
blaming cigarettes for causing fires and demanding "fire safe"
cigarettes.  It is conveniently omitted that studies indicate that the
majority of these cigarette caused fires were at the hands of an alcohol
impaired person.  Exaggerations about cigarettes have become acceptable
in the tyrannical way government is trying to stop adults from
exercising their choice to smoke. In 1989, FEMA ranked smoking 6th on
the nation-wide list of fire related causes. Candles would be included
under the 3rd leading cause of fires. I want to know when religious
candles in the home will be mandated to be "fire safe". Or isn't that a
politically correct thing to do?

     Due to the brevity necessary in attempts to have letters published
on opinion pages I was unable to add the following:

"According to the US Fire Administration (of FEMA), during 1985-89,
defective heating equipment caused 23.4% of residential fires; cooking
equipment 18.7%; incendiary or suspicious causes 12.0%; other equipment
8.2%; electrical distribution 7.9%; and smoking material only 6.8%.
They also admit that, "Historically, in the majority of these cases, the
smoker has also been drinking."

"According to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine (Runyan CW,
et al. NEJM 1992;327(12):859-863): "The presence of an alcohol-impaired
person was the strongest independent risk factor for death in the case
of a fire," 7.5, 95% CIs 4.4-12.7."

"According to another study (Chernichko L et al. Can J Public Health
1993;84(5):317-320), 76% of the victims of fatal house fires blamed on
cigarettes were LEGALLY INTOXICATED. Only 16% had not been drinking at
all."

 
     Is the demonization of cigarettes that important to you that you
will allow lies, exaggerations, possible personal bias and the
anti-smoking organizations to dictate and force their will on those
adults who by their own free will choose to smoke?  I am tired of
hearing "it is for the children."  I refuse to be made to feel guilty
about that sentiment.  These decisions are affecting millions of adults
who had once been those children you speak of now.  Why are we no longer
important?  It is the ultimate responsibility of parents/guardians to
ensure a safe environment for their children.  Government is
overstepping their bounds in assuming these responsibilities, especially
when the battle cry of "it's for the children" is a mask for control of
a particular sect of the adult population.

     As reported above, alcohol plays a large part in fires caused by
cigarettes.  Instead of blaming and putting the onus on tobacco
companies, because they have become the easy mark in the hateful
atmosphere created by anti-smoking fanatics, it would be more forthright
to place the focus on what is behind the reason for these fires.  When
will I hear someone shouting about alcohol the way I hear them shouting
about cigarettes?  Would that not be the fair thing to do? As far as I
can tell, the concept of fairness or truth no longer exists in matters
concerning smoking.  Fires started by candles in the home are also a
major fire concern.  How many people have been lost to these fires?
Certainly not enough for you to risk political suicide by condemning
candles, many lit for religious purposes, is it?  I thought even one was
too many.  Apparently, that only applies to cigarettes.  Both are easily
controllable yet only one is singled out.

     By all accounts, fire-safe cigarettes are incomparable in many
areas to the currently marketed cigarettes.  I had occasion to be a
tester for smokeless cigarettes in the past and if fire safe cigarettes
are anything like those, I can safely say they will not fair well
amongst smokers' preferences in the market place.  I am sure you believe
that this will reduce the number of smokers.  Rather, I am quite sure
this will promote out-of-state purchases, smuggling or black-market
sales.  Those in power to make decisions affecting their constituents
continually fail to realize that we are not so easily manipulated (read
"mindless") in that we will simply give up a legal activity borne out of
coercion.  Isn't it enough that smokers are unfairly taxed?  Now you
want to tax us beyond necessity AND in the process remove our right to
make choices?  It is high time smoking adults demand their right not to
be victimized these ways.

     You are not hurting the tobacco companies, you are hurting the
consumers by insisting they have no choice in purchase making in a
society that promotes free marketing.  Tobacco is a legal product.  It
is my right not to be told or have choices taken away in what it is or
what it is not I prefer in my purchases.  Life itself carries thousands
of risks.  No one can predict when one of those risks will become
factual, nor can one predict what it will be that one day may cause me
harm.  With all of these variable risks in life it is plainly obvious
that choosing cigarettes is a result of bias which has no place in a
democratic society.

     If you have any conscience at all about what government is really
about which is a government of the people, by the people and for the
people then you will take into consideration those people that choose to
smoke and not sign this bill.  I implore you not to hurt New York State
consumers in any misguided effort to impose anti-smoking views upon
adults who choose to smoke.

Sincerely,

Audrey Silk