Bar and Restaurant Employees Advocating Together for a Healthy Environment

 

Anita Finkelstein:  I work in a casino. The worst part of my job is the smoke. Some players blow it in my face deliberately when they lose, others are just thoughtless. At times I literally choke just to keep my job. I work with the hope of securing my retirement. My fear is that I won't live long enough to reap the rewards of my labor.

 

Barbara Lehner:  After 9 years of a successful and lucrative career as a musician, I was forced to give it all up due to chronic respiratory infections and bronchitis that I suffered from over years of breathing secondhand smoke in nightclubs and restaurants where I worked. This was a career I trained for my entire life. I have never smoked myself, yet I have developed asthma from breathing in secondhand smoke on the job

 

Tracey Paleo:  As a former waitress and hostess of several popular restaurants, I urge you to support legistlation for a "smoke-free" environment. For all of the years I HAD to do it, I felt sick and exhausted and at times angry and depressed about even having to put myself in such a situation. I was literally sick every night going home, not to mention everything I owned smelled like poison. And that is exactly what it is - Poison.

 

Mary Schaeffer:  I work for a wonderful family, but they still allow smoking in the break room in their business. In order for me to use the ladies room, I must go through the break room. This is a dangerous situation, especially if you have to take your breaks in this room.  Everyone deserves to breathe clean air while working.

 

Lisa Bergman:  When I was young I worked in a bar.  At my physical checkup time, my doctor said to "quit smoking" because my lungs didn't look good. Well, I didn't smoke! I may still come down with a smoke related illness in my lifetime from those jobs which paid my way through nursing school. I had no choice but to work in places to afford a decent college.

 

Jill Hotelling:  I work in five different restaurants. Two years ago my owner-operator decided to make his operations smoke-free!  I used to go home with terrible headaches, sinus problems and an overall feeling of illness. I didn't realize it was due to the second hand smoke I was inhaling all day, until it wasn't there any more.  I can't believe legislators wouldn't want to protect the people that have put them into office.

 

Adam Salazar:  I work bartending 4 days a week and I am disgusted with the amount of smoke I am constantly enveloped in.  PLEASE stop the smoking for the benefit of EVERYONE!!!!

 

Mollie Moser:  I am a full time female student who bartends to pay rent and living expenses.  When I started bartending I found out what it is like to be a chain smoker - secondhand. I was a professional dancer before I chose to go to school, my stamina has been badly effected by working as a bartender!  I cough a lot and simply climbing stairs gets me winded and the coughing and headaches effect my concentration in classes. It is very important for every single worker to have a smokefree environment. No one should spend a day recovering from their job.

 

 

Stephen Shermran:  I am a bartender and professional actor working in restaurants and bars for the last six years.  My job is ideal because it allows me to work at night, making the necessary money I need to sustain myself in this city, and pursue my acting career during the day. I have a right, personally, as do all restaurant/bar/club workers, to work in a safe, smoke free environment.  When I committed to my job, I committed to selling food and drinks, not to being exposed to cancer causing smoke.

Dylan Clay:   My employer always looked at me like I had 6 heads when I'd tell them about the unsafe air quality at my job. Their reply was, "You work in a bar!" So I should die?  I can remember turning blue gasping for air, trying to hold my breath as I ran through the room with trays of cocktails.  Philip Morris is one of our biggest clients, hell, we can't tell them not or where to smoke. Again swallow it.  I would come home in tears.  I went to see an Occupational Environmental Hazard doctor. I was diagnosed with Occupational Asthma. Since then, I wolf down inhalers, bronchodilators, steroids.  I have never smoked a cigarette in my life. This is my reward for 6 hard worked years in a bar.  The law really should be about the right to breathe and NOT the right to smoke.

Catherine Dupuis:   I am a working jazz singer - a career I've trained and worked hard for.  I'm doing it with the best, have international record distribution and radio play.  I have asthma and singing in these smoky restaurants, clubs and bars is significantly detrimental to my health and, once the asthma kicks in in these workplaces, my ability to perform my work at my best.  I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to pursue my profession and my career in the same smokefree work environment afforded to so many other New Yorkers.  I'm not asking for anything they don't already have and I think I deserve to have a smokefree workplace as much as these other New Yorkers do.

Nathan Baker:  I often wonder if I will be doing the right thing by returning to work at the Millennium Hilton. On 9/11 my workplace was destroyed and God willing I will be able to return to work this coming January.  I just wanted to let you know how not working in a smoke filled bar every day has affected my health. Since the Hilton has closed my health improvements have been dramatic.  I wonder about the damage that was caused to my lungs from breathing smoke filled air every day.  I had chronic asthma. Not just the kind that you see people with an inhaler but the kind that puts you in the hospital and jeopardizes your life. During one attack I lost consciousness in the emergency room and fortunately was revived without any lasting effects from oxygen deprivation. Until 9/11 I had been taking daily steroids for my lung condition along with corti-steroids for allergies.  I need to work; I feel that my rights to enjoy a safe & healthy work environment are being violated. There is no reason not to protect my health.

Jeremy Bohen:  I am a bartender.  New York City an opportunity to exert its leadership in a profound and important way. By ensuring the right of all workers in New York City to earn their livings and build their lives without fear of the undeniable risks of second hand cigarette smoke, New York City can better the lives lived in our city, and serve as an example to communities across the country.

Katharine Emory:  As a professional singer I am frequently finding my personal and professional health compromised by other peoples' use of cigarettes.  There is NO compromise that will eliminate second-hand smoke from invading the lungs of non-smokers if smokers are allowed to smoke in public venues. This is unfortunate, but clearly true.

Joe Weaver:  I worked in college to support myself as a bartender in college clubs and bars for five years. Every year, I would come down with pneumonia, upper-respiratory-tract infections, and would catch a colds at least three times a year. I was out of breathe, could not play sports, and had terrible headaches from my customers’ cigarette smoke.  It has been over 10 years since I worked in a bar and I rarely catch a cold and have never had another upper-respiratory-track infections. I am 15 years older and my health is better than when I was younger, because I was not forced to smoke other people's smoke.

Linda Azzollini:  My husband and I own Paul & Jimmy's Restaurant on E. 18th Street. My three children work with us and we have 12 employees.  The decision to have a smoke free NYC should be one that focuses on the HEALTH of its workers not on the wealth of the tobacco companies.  We all deserve to have the best chance of a long life with our families.

Eddie Sarfaty:  I worked for many years in a smoky bar and put up with the tremendous health hazards because of financial necessity.  Luckily I am no longer in that position. Others are. Any attempt to pass a watered down version of the proposed bill will only serve to endanger the health of workers who because of financial necessity are forced to take jobs in these hazardous environments.

Rare Flower:  Why should we have to work in a smoky environment while politicians and others enjoy the comforts of clean air?  Should we die to make a living? Think of our constant aggravation of burning eyes, struggling to breath and that awful taste in the mouth.  Is this what is called double standard?

Jeffrey Becker:  Having previously worked in restaurants and bars for years, I can unequivocally say that the discomfort experienced by the average non-smoking customer in these establishments is nothing compared to the unexplainable persistent cough, headache, burning sinuses and irritated eyes that workers can experience after long periods of exposure to smoke-filled workspaces.

Evan Dove:  I was forced to give up lucrative work in the entertainment field due to inability/lack of desire to breathe other's toxins, (second hand cigarette smoke).  I strongly favor smokefree workplace legislation.

Patricia Atwater:  I have been a smoker for nearly ten years. Moreover, I have worked in restaurants and bars filled with smoke. My own smoking habits disgust me. And what I loathe the most is that I am inflicting pain on people around me.  I'll gladly give up smoking in bars, and so will other smokers. It's worth it.

Alison Jolicoeur:  I have been a bartender in a 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 and founder of BREATHE.  “Bartenders, waiters/waitresses, busboys, casino workers 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.”