http://banthebanwisconsin.wordpress.com/2008/08/21/madi...dirty-little-secret/

Madison’s Dirty Little Secret

MADISON, Wis. - The Milwaukee, Madison and Green Bay areas do not meet tough new air quality standards designed to protect public health and may need additional regulations, federal regulators said Tuesday.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement drew criticism from a top state air official, who warned it could hurt economic development and do little to improve air quality.

The EPA said its review found Brown, Columbia, Dane, Racine, Waukesha and Milwaukee counties have unacceptable levels of fine particulate matter in the air or contribute to problems in neighboring areas.

The pollution is largely caused by coal-fired power plants and diesel engines and creates health problems such as asthma, lung disease and heart problems.
The EPA estimates tens of thousands of premature deaths are linked to sooty air every year.

– Chicago Tribune

Well thank God they have a smoking ban on places where individuals have the choice as to what sort of air they breathe.

This goes back to externalities vs. the legal assumption of risk. People living in these five counties would otherwise have a choice as to whether or not they’ll enter a place that allows smoking, but they don’t have a choice as to what sort of air they breathe in the out-of-doors.

It’s also quite shocking that the ‘top state air official’ is concerned about harming economic development and is using this argument as an excuse not to push for cleaner outdoor air, yet when tavern owners cite economic harm from smoking bans, they’re being ‘greedy’ and don’t ‘care about their patrons’.

Another post:

Wisconsin is being forced to breathe dirty air, but it isn’t in any tavern.

Here we have Gov. Doyle and his administration asking the federal government to look the other way on the non-compliance with Environmental Protection Agency clean outdoor air standards in eight Wisconsin counties.

Doyle tells EPA these Wisconsin counties can all comply by 2015 (in seven years).

No big hurry to fix outdoor air quality here by the same governor who won’t give taverns beyond Jan. 1, 2009 (ten months from now) to comply with his draconian smoking ban.

The eight non-compliant counties exceed limits for particulate pollution—the fine particles that come from burning coal and vehicle exhaust and make breathing difficult for people with asthma and other lung afflictions.

The Wisconsin State Journal reports that one of the eight counties, Dane, is home to 33,264 adults with asthma, 8,731 kids with pediatric asthma, and 14,323 people with chronic bronchitis.

These unfortunate people have no choice but to breathe this particulate-contaminated outdoor air. And the Doyle administration is willing to have them continue choking—involuntarily—until 2015.

Doyle’s bizarre obsession with secondhand smoke in taverns, meanwhile, continues.

So…adults who choose to go into taverns where smoking is allowed would not be permitted, while asthmatic children will be wheezing on contaminated outside air for seven more years.

Where are the priorities?

The EPA estimates tens of thousands of premature deaths are linked to sooty air every year.

epa and their assumptions based upon what..
liberal progressive feel good politics...what we need is to repeal epa and all other govmnt dpets..........its gone to far its time for REPEAL