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General – Page 21 – Chris Flannery

General

Philly, you’re so progressive!

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City of Philadelphia City Council
Chief Clerk’s Office
402 City Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19107

BILL NO. 050063
Introduced February 3, 2005

Councilmembers Nutter, Reynolds-Brown, Goode, Council President Verna, Councilmembers Rizzo, Tasco, Miller, Cohen and O’Neill

Referred to the Committee on Public Health and Human Services

AN ORDINANCE

Amending Chapter 10-600 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled “Public Places — Prohibited Conduct,” by prohibiting smoking in public places and in the workplace, and providing for penalties, all under certain terms and conditions.

WHEREAS, Beginning in the 1940s, the City of Philadelphia has enacted prohibitions on smoking in various public facilities in order to protect the public health and welfare; and

WHEREAS, Smoking on public transit vehicles has been prohibited in the City since 1943 and was declared at that time to be a “nuisance prejudicial to the welfare and safety” of the riding public; and

WHEREAS, Smoking in certain retail stores has been prohibited since 1947, and smoking in places of public assembly with a capacity of more than 100 persons has been prohibited since 1948; and

WHEREAS, Pursuant to the City’s Fire Code, smoking is prohibited in various facilities such as warehouses, stores, industrial plants, institutions and schools; and

WHEREAS, Since 1993, an Executive Order has prohibited smoking in all City-owned and City-occupied space to which the public has access; and

WHEREAS, Several measures have been enacted which seek to curb access to cigarettes and tobacco products by minors, including Bill No. 732 (approved December 28, 1995) which required purchasers of tobacco products to present a photo I.D. and required warning signs about sales to minors on vending machines; and, Bill No. 960367-A (approved June 23, 1998) which required “lock-out devices” on cigarette vending machines; and

WHEREAS, Many studies have found that tobacco smoke is a major contributor to indoor air pollution and that exposure to secondhand smoke is a cause of many serious health diseases in adult non-smokers and children; and

WHEREAS, This Ordinance is enacted to further protect the public’s health and welfare from the dangerous, unnecessary and involuntary health risks associated with exposure to secondhand smoke; now, therefore,

THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA HEREBY ORDAINS:

SECTION 1. Legislative Findings. The Council finds that:

(a) Tobacco smoke, also referred to as secondhand smoke, contains more than 4,000 known chemical compounds that are released into the air as particles and gases.

(b) According to a 2001 report issued by the National Cancer Institute, there are sixty-nine known or probable carcinogens in tobacco smoke.

(c) In 1986, the U.S. Surgeon General concluded that exposure to secondhand smoke can cause lung cancer in healthy nonsmokers.

(d) In 1992, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concluded that exposure to secondhand smoke is responsible for approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths annually in U.S. nonsmokers, and that secondhand smoke has a statistically significant effect on the respiratory health of non-smoking adults.

(e) For children, the 1992 EPA report concluded that exposure to secondhand smoke is casually associated with increased risk of lower respiratory tract infections, such as bronchitis and pneumonia; increased prevalence of fluid in the middle ear; and, increased symptoms of upper respiratory tract irritation. Moreover, the EPA found that exposure to tobacco smoke increases the number of episodes and the severity of symptoms in asthmatic children, and causes thousands of non-asthmatic children to develop this condition each year.

(f) A 2004 study appearing in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, found that while three-fourths of white collar workers are covered by smoke-free workplace policies, fewer than 13% of bartenders and 28% of wait staff have the benefit of a smoke-free workplace. In 2002, food service workers accounted for the fourth highest number of employees in the workforce; and, 20% were teenagers; 55.8 % were female; approximately 12% were African-American; and, nearly 20% were Hispanic.

(g) Ventilation devices are very expensive to retrofit into existing buildings and there is no scientific evidence which demonstrates that ventilation technology can eliminate the health risks associated with exposure to secondhand smoke. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has concluded that ventilation is not an acceptable engineering control measure for controlling occupational exposure to secondhand smoke.

(h) Based on 2002 health survey data, nearly 75% of Pennsylvanians do not smoke.

(i) Many citizens of Philadelphia are exposed to tobacco smoke due to its widespread presence in public places and in the workplace. Exposure to secondhand smoke presents a substantial health risk to adult nonsmokers and children.

(j) In order to protect and promote the public’s health, safety and welfare, further restrictions on smoking in public places and in the workplace should be enacted.

< read the whole thing PDF>

[tags]philly, smoking, ban, philadelphia[/tags]

duck decoys on TV

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Tim Watley on Seinfield owned a duck decoy. See the Jon Voight/Thanksgiving Day Parade episode.

Jimmy Neutron’s (The Boy Genius) father has a pretty big collection throughout the house. Can be seen in many epsiodes.

good cameras take good photographs

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i dont think my father would be offended by criticizing his photography skills as we have family albums where its hard to decipher whether thats my little sister or our dog crawling under the christmas tree.

good cameras can take good photographs and my father has a Nikon D70.

The Death of Philly Jazz WJJZ

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Philly Flips A Pair
Aug. 10, 2006
By Keith Berman

We’ve been rumoring this one for a few days now, and things happened almost exactly as we said they would: Clear Channel/Philadelphia has flipped smooth jazz WJJZ and AC WSNI (Sunny 104.5). WJJZ is now “Philly’s 106.1” with Clear Channel’s “Wake Up With Whoopi” slated to launch in mornings on Monday (Aug. 14). R&R’s Street Talk Daily uncovered the domain www.phillys1061.com earlier this week, and the site is now active with a splash page touting Whoopi’s show.

The two stations are currently simulcasting and kicked off their new formats with “start”- themed songs like The Black Eyed Peas’ “Let’s Get It Started,” Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Something” and 2 Unlimited’s “Get Ready for This.” At press time, things looked to be leaning towards Rhythmic AC — also as Street Talk Daily predicted — with tracks airing by KT Tunstall, Blondie, Nina Sky, and LaBelle. It’s not known how long the stations will simulcast and whether this will be the final format for 106.1, but rumors are still circulating that 104.5 will go alternative.

WSNI and WJJZ both ended their runs with farewell-themed tracks: WJJZ’s swan song was Hall & Oates’ “She’s Gone,” and Sunny signed off with Elton John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.”

–Updated 8/28/06–

Smooth Jazz is back – in a way. Clear Channel Radio, which killed the format on 106.1 on Aug. 10, has started streaming the old station’s music on the Internet (accessible through www.wjjz.com, though on Friday it was still labeled “straight jazz”) and over the air on 106.1’s secondary channel on HD radio (for which you need a special radio). WJJZ’s longtime music director, Frank Childs, is voicing the station. No other company seems likely to pick up Smooth Jazz for a conventional FM station here.
(philadlephia inquirer/klein)

Air Your Grivences at Philly.com:
wjjz message board

[tags]philly, jazz, wjjz, clear channel[/tags]

my wish for the Scranton Red Barons

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At the end of this season of AAA baseball Red Barons will be without and affiliation to MLB. Currently the Barons are affiliated with the Philadelphia Phillies – which has always been especially great for the area because I’d guesstimate 50% of the Area’s fans are Phillies fans. (The other 48% are probably Yankees Fans.) With the promise of Allentown building a AAA baseball franchise – the Phillies look to have an agreement to farm with them. With the outward expansion away from Philadelphia – Allentown and the rest of the Lehigh Valley are now by many considered suburbs of Philadlephia. The commute is about an hour. I’m guessing the populations of the Lehigh Valley surely can susatin a AAA franchise as it well exceeds Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metro.

So without a stadium… and without a team… Philadelphia and Allentown will look to persuade a cheap and lackluster team to hijack. Odds are looking like it will be you Ottawa. This is where I get happy.

Ottawa is currently the affiliate for the Baltimore Orioles. I am an Orioles fan. Perhaps if the cards are dealt right – the Phillies will affilaitre with Ottawa and eventually bring them to Allentown… leaving the Orioles to affiliate with the Scranton. This would be anytime I go home to visit my family I could scout the minors to see whats working up the ranks to the O’s.

Another consideration is that the Washington Nationals may try and affiliate with Scranton. I don’t hate this idea – but from a Scrantonian standpoint – how good do we feel about the longevity of the Nationals on the east coast?

bring tesh back

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i snooze for 1.5 hours in the morning.

i had grown accustom to john tesh’s mellow voice and soothing words of wisdom.
he always had good tips for living.
for some strange reason i liked him – he played mellow mom pop music… but at 5:45am thats all i can really deal with.

now he’s gone.

replaced by whoopi goldberg. i’m trying to giver her chance, a chance only based on her role in “ghost”. i don’t think its gonna work. she sounds uncomfortable and doesn’t sound like she has anything to really say. dumb callers call in to talk about nothing… except how much they love whoopi.

wake up with whoopi

you suck clear channel.
you suck Sunny! (WJJZ) (which i think is just called “Philly’s 106.1” now)

bring tesh back!