B.R.E.A.T.H.E.

Bar and Restaurant Employees Advocating Together for a Healthy Environment

New York City Bartenders, Waiters, and Musicians Demand a Safe, Smokefree Work Environment

Workers Joined By Mark Green to Support Mayor’s Smokefree Workplace Bill

New York City, October 10, 2002…  Bar, restaurant, and nightclub workers are forced to breathe secondhand smoke at work, and many of them are sick of it… literally.  Here is what some BREATHE members have to say:

Alison Jolicoeur:  I have been a bartender in a Manhattan nightclub for several years.  Unfortunately I have suffered many negative consequences.  At the end of a shift, my eyes are itchy, my skin is crawling, and I am congested.  It takes a full day to recover.  However, I need a job that is flexible, because I am also a local singer and performer.  I've heard a lot of people argue if bartenders don't like the smoke, they can do something else, but it's not that simple.  It's not about people's right to smoke; it's about people's right to breathe.

Jackie Wheeler:  I am choking from excessive secondhand smoke and my clothes and hair are permeated with the putrid smell of cigarettes.  This is particularly disturbing for me as I am pregnant.  Exposure to secondhand smoke during pregnancy is known to cause serious risks to the survival and health of the fetus and the newborn baby.  This is not fair.  Others’ choice to smoke is infringing on my right to work in a healthy environment.

Richard Toes:  Am I a bad person because I am a waiter and bartender?  What did I do that is so wrong that I must decide between having a decent paying job that I enjoy and sub­stantially increasing my risk of cancer and lung disease?  All I want is the same right to a safe, smokefree workplace that millions of other workers enjoy.  People who work in bars, restaurants, and nightclubs are good people.  We deserve a safe, healthy, smokefree workplace too.

Sage Bartlett:  I am a waiter/bartender who has held jobs in restaurants for 14 years.  I am highly resentful of secondhand smoke and feel people should not have that right to affect others with their addictions.

Matinah Payne-Yahudah:  I have been a bartender at a restaurant for the past two years.  During the course of working there, I discovered that I was two months pregnant.  I immediately stopped working, but my unborn child had been exposed to two months of smoke.  I have never smoked a day in my life and I only pray that this does not have a negative effect on my baby.

Cynthia Harztell:  I am an actor and work at temp jobs and restaurants when I'm not in a show.  I suffer health issues from other people's smoke, such as sinus problems, soar throat, and headaches.  Being trapped in a bar all night to make money is a miserable experience.  It affects my health and my quality of performance as an actor.

Donna Martini:  I was a waitress for many years while my babies were young, and then as a single parent I became a bartender to earn extra money at night.  It became necessary for me to quit working, because I was sick all the time from the second-hand smoke.

Bill Moriarity (president of Local 802 ‑ Associated Musicians of Greater New York ‑ which represents 10,000 professional musicians):  The health of all workers is equally important.  No one should be allowed to make someone else sick.  Unfortunately, most of our members have the choice of either working in a smoke filled room or not working at all.

Ken Wade:  As a small club entertainer I have been deprived of employment because my body cannot tolerate smoke.  Why do other workers deserve a smokefree workplace and not me?

Gregory Novara:  I should have the right to work in a cancer-free environment.  According to the NYC Department of Health, the average bartender breathes the equivalent of half a pack of cigarettes a night.

Richard Weyant:  At age forty two and employed full-time as a bartender at one of New York's top hotel's for the past seven years, I want to stay at my present job.  Why should I have to give up one of the best jobs I've ever had?

James De Vito:  I have been a bartender for 17 years.  I love my job, mostly because I love people and the freedom my job offers.  The only thing I hate is the smoke.  Cigarettes kill, period.  Why are people permitted to kill me?

Timmy Cappello:  I'm a singer and musician who plays frequently in restaurants and bars.  I care about my health and think it's dangerous and unfair that I should have to be subjected to a risk of cancer and heart disease just to ply my trade

“These people are right,” says Joe Cherner, president of SmokeFree Educational Services.  “Bartenders, waiters, and musicians deserve the same right to a safe, smokefree workplace that everyone else won long ago.  No worker should have to breathe something that causes cancer to hold a job, or have to give up a job just to prevent getting sick.  Clean indoor air is a basic right to which all workers should be entitled.” 

Theresa Cassiack, (Public Health Project Coordinator for the New York Public Interest Research Group):  We hear from college students who work in restaurants and taverns that cigarette smoke makes them feel sick, but they have no choice but to work to pay their way through school.

Mark Green, former Public Advocate and Commissioner of Consumer Affairs under David Dinkins, says, “Among all the back and forth arguments on this

controversial issue, one stands out clear as a bell:  Smokefree restaurants and bars protect the physical health of all employees, yet don’t hurt the economic health of owners, based on the experiences of other jurisdictions.”  Green led past efforts to eliminate the sale of cigarettes through vending machines, he sued to get rid of “Joe Camel,” and he patented “Kick Butts Day.”