Friday 25 January 2013

PE 01451 closed after very brief hearing, Scottish Parliament

It looks as if I'll need another attempt to upload the video of the Health and Sport Committee meeting on Tuesday this week. In the meantime the link is here. The meeting lasts over three hours. Our petition comes in at about 180.35 minutes in.

Calling it a hearing is something of an exaggeration. One member, Aileen McLeod MSP, introduces a letter with some supplementary evidence presented to her in person by her constituent Bill Gibson, and sent to other committee members subsequently.

Gil Paterson MSP talks of his experience with the automotive industry, comparing workers in a car workshop where he describes a sealed environment and gas masks. He then opines that there will never come a time, regardless of the advances made in air cleaning technology, when the smoking ban can be repealed safely.

Richard Simpson MSP says that the ventilation issue was settled way back in 2001, recommends closing the petition and abruptly leaves the committee room leaving the convenor, Duncan McNeil MSP, to wind up in his absence.

Glancing at the sheet in front of him (no doubt the Spice briefing) regaling tales of improvements in heart attack and asthma admission rates, he concludes that the smoking ban has been of great benefit and, no one dissenting, declares the petition closed.

No scrutiny of the evidence has taken place, nor suggestions made to call expert evidence on smoking and air cleaning technology. Mr McNeil declares that the smoking ban works according to Health and Safety Executive guidelines by removing the source of the pollution rather than providing ventilation, showing that he has chosen not to consider the possibility raised in the petition – namely, that removing smoking gets rid of a single source of indoor air pollution, leaving the remainder, and making very limited difference to any toxicity in the air.
 

8 comments:

Lysistrata said...

So sorry Belinda. This is a travesty and exposes the refusal by elected decision-makers to consider the evidence you so carefully and politely put forward. Neither you nor I expected anyhing different though.

PS the captcha sign-in for this post is 'layinEU'. lol.

john watson said...

Sadly I agree with Lysistrata, I would add that £millions already paid into ASH's coffers ensured such a decision was inevitable.

In my opinion the way forward now is a series of comparison of comparison tests demonstrating the efficiency of Air management systems under scientific standards. If ASH and the politicians are correct then the experiments will fail if they are wrong then they will succeed.

In reality the chances of the politicians allowing this to happen and proving the case one way or the other are very remote.

Bill Gibson said...

John, we already have all the necessary tests and results comparing the results with OSHA, MAK and HSE Occupational Exposure Limits. There is no need to repeat what has already been done by experts in their field.

We have video evidence from leading global manufacturers of Air Filtration Systems controling and removing smoke and CS Gas, the latest technology from Switzerland, Japan, Korea all of which were submitted.

We have plans which will be revealed in due course.

Bill Gibson said...

It is now time to change direction and to form Horecaclaim UK, a not for profit company and to encouage hard hit hospitality and leisure venues to join.

Available to us is an internationally renowned Business Loss Claims Lawyer with particulae experience in politics. Hit the Governments with 200 plus compensation claims and at the same time expose the lies in Court as such combined action would attract media attention and hit the Governments where it hurts most.

Bill Gibson said...

Here is a link to an example of one of the many studies carried out across Europe, UK and Ireland submitted to the Health and Sports Committee that has been totally ignored.

http://www.batresponsibility.eu/downloads/UG_Report-FairPlay.pdf

Lou said...

To me the whole thing sound very similar to the mentality and attitudes of those who managed our Poorhouse's back in the 18th century.

My understanding is you never sought to have the ban repealed, so Gil Paterson's comment displays a lack of understanding of the (two paragraph?) petition. Of course Gil has a backup, as well as a possible conflict of interests http://www.gilsmotorfactors.co.uk/

And Simpson's comment does beg clarification. If the decision to exclude ventilation from the equation was taken in 2001. By whom? Where? and for what reason?

While disappointing it's tremendously helpful as a revealing insight into our so called transparent form of government.

It helps explain why support for independence has dropped to an all time low. And that's exactly what Richard Simpson MSP wants.

Bill Gibson said...

On the 12th June 2012 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) part of the WHO. classified diesel exhaust emissions as a Class 1 carcinogen and claimed it to be more dangerous than second hand cigarette smoke.

Dr Simpson’s unsubstantiated claim refers to 20th century technology which typifies his thought process. The Petition was created around Modern Air Management Technology with efficiencies of up to 99.9999999999% effectiveness99.

Bill Gibson said...

continued

The quality and quantity of evidence submitted now raises serious questions as to the competence of the Committee to make such decisions without further referral to external experts such as EUROVENT, the spokesman for the European refrigeration, air conditioning, air handling, heating and ventilation industry, representing trade associations from European and non-European countries especially when the European Standard EN 13779 forms an integral part of Petition PE01451.

Note most of the Committee members are pro-EU and wish closer ties with Europe but failed to recognise the EU Standard for Ventilation EN 13779. At the same time they dismissed leading European Technology as expensive and not fit for purpose.