Also see: Tips For Quitting Smoking
by Reza Ganjavi
I was an anti-smoking activist in Switzerland and have talked to innumerable smokers about the topic, and helped them break from it. I also lobbied the train system (SBB) CEO to make trains non-smoking. Before, smoking and non-smoking were separated by a door that didn't make much difference at all. As a friend put it, smoking is like pissing in the swimming pool - it travels! I also lobbied other entities like restaurants and supermarket dining areas against smoking.
Below are a few of many letters and articles I wrote about the topic.
Dear Swiss Federal Council
I read in the newspaper in Zurich that restaurant owners are lobbying you to delay the May 1 smoking ban.
Please take notice that there was a large survey done in the US some time ago which indicated with statistical significance that restaurants did not lose business after they became non smoking.
Any request for a delay is only an excuse and nothing justifies the backward practice of letting people smoke in public places where others do not have a choice but to inhale the second hand poison. The restaurant owners should be thinking more about their employees' and their customers' health than worrying about their profits. And the current way of having a "non smoking section" in Swiss restaurants is a joke because smoke travels.
Recently I was at a company party. We had a non smoking exclusive room at a restaurant and still, at the end of the night our clothes were stinking from smoke because people in other rooms smoked. It's time Switzerland start putting the interest of its citizens ahead of interest of Big Tobacco. The Swiss bus and tram stops are like ashtrays. It's a shame how many Swiss kids smoke. I see it regularly. I also see massive advertising to brain wash these kids to become addicts so Big Tobacco can benefit. These kids grown into addict adults who suffer every day. 97% of people who want to stop smoking don't stop. That means they suffer. Government cares about people wearing their seat belt but not if they suffer in their home and make others suffer with second hand smoke.
Congratulations for the smoking ban. Please make sure it goes into effect on May 1. Switzerland can not afford a day of delay.
You can read accounts of my many discussions about dangers of smoking with youngsters on: https://www.rezamusic.com/health/quit-smoking
All good wishes
Reza Ganjavi
To: Mr. Benedikt Weibel, Chief Executive of Swiss Federal Railways, SBB, Hochschulstrasse 6, 3000 Bern 65
Dear Mr. Weibel:
As a pride resident of this great country of Switzerland and a regular traveller on the wonderful SBB network, and several times holder of a GA, I like to give you what I consider feedback on an extremely urgent matter.
I wrote a couple of paragraphs in the moment when I was put in these difficult situations which you will find below.
I am riding train from Zurich to Basel - I am at the end of the non smoking section farthest from smoking and my throat hurts as a result of the second-hand-smoke. When are you going to stop being so sympathetic to the Tobacco industry and make wagons that are fully non smoking? The door you have is like going to a restaurant and have the table next to you be a smoking table! Please get real. Second hand smoke kills people. It makes people ill. These are facts. The cost of the illness for the country is more than the big tobacco's tax. PLEASE MAKE A NON SMOKING WAGON ON *EVERY* TRAIN. IT IS SO EASY TO DO. Would you like me to go around collecting signatures to tell you that many people feel exactly as I do?
Thanks and sorry for the strong tone - I am in pain - and it's too cold to go outside by the toilet. I am upset. I have no choice. I pay, I ride train, and I am forced to inhale poison.
~~~
11 Feb
Sitting on the upper deck of a cross country double decker train, it feels like being in a lousy bar full of smokers. Yes, I am in the non smoking section of a Swiss SBB train! When are you going to have the courage to act and stop having so much sympathy for the Big Tobacco? Don't my beloved Swiss brothers and sisters and tourists who want to inhale unpolluted air during their travels deserve so? Why not put all the smokers in one or more dedicated carts and let them enjoy their hell. Why expose us to it? What is it going to take? Why can't a CEO, a chief, have the energy and insight and determination to make this important step?
Best Wishes
Reza Ganjavi
~~~
Thanks very much Ms. Keller for the information. Please note a very important point:
You say:
"A third of the Swiss population are smokers. To many people in this country, the growing number of young smokers is a cause for concern because it is felt that for various reasons, they do not smoke for pleasure only."
That's correct. It's a tragedy. They smoke because there is billboard advertising in every train station, and so on. The society wants them to smoke, let's face it. What the society misses to see is the long term healthcare costs exceeds the short term revenue from tobacco tax. Also the society forgets that the wellbeing of people inside their houses is as important as laws that say you should wear a seatbelt. But the society doesn't care if you go home and you suffer as most smokers do.
"On the other hand, there are a sizeable number of people who simply enjoy smoking"
This is absolutely false. There are several studies. Most smokers do not enjoy it. They do it because they're addicted. You can test this yourself. Go to bahnhof and ask 30 smokers. I've done it. Every one who is intelligent says they don't like it even if initially they say they do -- if you ask again and ask them to really look.
", and do it entirely out of their own will."
Utterly false!! Statistics say only 3-5 smokers out of a 100 who want to smoke can. It means 95% do not do it out of their own will. They're addicted. I have also done some studies on this subject and can help you if you're short of obvious data. I've talked to more Swiss young people about smoking than any of these hopeless anti smoking groups you have who give tattoos to youngsters as reward for not smoking (a joke!).
"We have to face up to these diverging interests."
You have to first grasp the facts. Then examine your responsibility to those who have chosen not to inhale 400 different poisons with every puff and simply allow them to breath clean air on your trains. To do this properly, first you have to admit there is a problem. There is a very serious urgent problem on the swiss rail system because the part-smoking carts exposes non smoking passengers to a variety of serious poisons. If you feel the urgency of this you will do something about it quicker.
It is the CEO's job to give this matter priority. The current situation is absolutely unacceptable and reflects a dark-ages mentality and utter irresponsibility. Many of the current double deckers are intolerable during busy times when smoke gets everywhere even in lower levels. The single-deckers with a separating door are also a joke because the door is totally ineffective.
Regards Ganjavi
TO: Mr. Moritz Leuenberger, Honorable President of the Swiss Confederation
COPY: Swiss Confederation Ministers (via Federal Chancellery); Mr. Benedikt Weibel; Mr. Kienberger.
Dear Mr. Leuenberger:
First, I apologize for writing in English. May I extend warm congratulations on your new role as the President of this great Confederation and wish you well. As a very small gift to your excellency, two classical music/guitar CD's which I produced in Switzerland in collaboration with some of the best Swiss musicians were sent to you yesterday. I hope that you will enjoy them.
As a resident of this wonderful country, I'd like to congratulate you, Mr. Weibel, and all those who acted in making the train system in Switzerland smoke-free. Riding Swiss trains has always been a joy, now without cigarette smoke it is even more of a joy. This wonderful mass transport system is one of the great things about this country aside from the generous spirit of the people, strong appreciation for arts, and wonderful nature. In California, where I spent most of my adult years and still spend time regularly, being without a car is virtually impossible. This simple difference has significant societal and psychological impacts on people and quality of life, as I have observed and experienced.
I had written several times to the SBB authorities including to Mr. Weibel, that the past system including the doors which separated the smoking from the non-smoking sections was simply ineffective. The new ban is a major step in protecting the health of all those commuters who are affected by the serious dangers of second-hand smoke.
But we still have a long way to go. Smoking should be banned in all indoor places specially where food is served. Presently some restaurants offer a non-smoking section. Many don't. And in most of those that do, the sections are virtual, meaning, from one table to next the section changes, and unfortunately smoke does not respect those boundaries. A funny (and sad) example is a diner on Stampfenbachplatz in Zurich: Four counter tables are side by side. Two are non smoking and two are smoking, which absolutely makes no difference except that instead of smoke getting blown at you directly you get it 2 seconds later.
In my beloved city Baden, the world-class, wonderful Thermalbad allows smokers in its cafe. No doors separate the cafe from the reception and no doors separate the reception from the pool. There is even a cigarette machine in the reception of this place which is supposed to be a healing resort that attracts people from all over the world! Cinemas and other public places suffer from the same negligence to the dangers of smoking and offer the same sympathy to Big Tobacco.
Being an anti-smoking activist, purely out of concern and affection for specially the young victims of this dangerous addiction, I have spoken with many young people about this habit and have helped some stop. Some of the conversations are reflected on my web-site : www.rezamusic.com.
I have also traveled a lot and can tell you from subjective observation that smoking among the young in Switzerland -- and this includes pre-teen children -- is among the worst in Europe if not in the world. I can think of four reasons for this: 1) massive advertising 2) social pressures 3) economic well-being which provides a strong target market for Big Tobacco 4) the trusting- and good-nature of the Swiss in trusting that that which is offered to them is good. The first factor is the simplest to address from a policy standpoint.
Tobacco advertising in Switzerland seems completely out of control. Just go to the Bern Bahnhof, outside Tibits (a vegetarian restaurant which allows smoking!) -- you see a starry camel which is presently ruling the Swiss billboards by street sides and in every train station I've recently been to, and not one, but many of the same adverts, sometimes rotating, encouraging people to "Discover More". The Camel is very very attractive and glamorous, full of mystery: it is made out of stars resembling some galaxy such as Andromeda. There is only one mystery to cigarettes: a slow painful death is almost guaranteed for one out of every three smokers.
Curbing advertising should be taken very seriously. Most smokers that I've talked to admit that they are utterly unhappy at spending money on something they do not like doing and which even hurts them. Just doing what you don't like doing because of having to do it, and even worse, paying what amounts to a significant sum of money for most, is enough to make a person miserable.
Whatever the cost, or lost opportunity cost in terms of forgone tax revenue on tobacco sales, or advertising, I can assure you that in the grand scheme of things curbing tobacco use will significantly improve the well-being of this great people.
To ban smoking in all indoor public places will bring Switzerland to the forefront of health, goodness, quality, and sensibility, which are considered important values here. Italy is far ahead of us. So is Ireland, USA, and other societies who understand the growing evidence that the ultimate cost of smoking on the society is much greater than its economic benefit. How can this be conveyed to your fellow Ministers and voters? I would be pleased to participate in conducting a survey or bringing together the wide available and regularly updated global research in this field in order to help with the public relations on the topic. Perhaps this can be done in collaboration with the existing anti-smoking organizations in Switzerland (one which I knew was poorly run). I have an MBA as well as other degrees and experience in such studies. Second-hand smoke is so utterly dangerous that it violates the rights of passive smokers to breathe un-poisoned air, and as such the smokers’ right to smoke indoors are withdrawn in these progressive societies. Why can’t Switzerland be next?!
Thanks for your time. I hope you will like the CD’s. Please also take a look at the enclosed booklets of the CD's. And perhaps if you have time you’d have a look at my website : www.rezamusic.com. I’d be delighted to perform guitar music at your government or private events, and can be reached at the phone number and email below. Or any help I could give you in this fight with smoking, please do not hesitate to ask. I am regularly talking to smokers anyway.
All good wishes & best regards,
Reza Ganjavi
Smoking is out of control in Switzerland - the widely read morning paper "20 minutes" has 2 big ads for cigs - they're making joke out of the mandatory label flipping the regulation -- CAMEL has part of the label in big "RAUCHEN IST" -- and both ads for Kent and Camel have the mandatory warning so little many people can't read it with naked eye. Shame on the tobacco industry - the drug pushers who thrive out of making young people addicts.
Dear Fr. Ruttimann
Thank you for the information.
Here's my site www.rezamusic.com
There's an anti-smoking section on my site.
I really think Canton Aargau should legislate more strict rules against smoking in order to protect non smoker. Places like < > or < > are jokes.
< > serves drinks to the people constantly going in and out the smoking door. I don't go there regularly but just went in to inspect it once.
< > has 2 smoking rooms -- both doors open to the non smoking room and both doors are constantly open.
The manager at 10:30 pm on 22 May told me the doors stay open and when a customer has a problem they can close the doors. And we all know how un-Swiss it is to complain!
One of the smoking rooms is constantly connected with the non smoking room through the bar which serves both rooms and aside from staff going through it regularly the smoke also freely travels, and not to say that to leave the place, the smokers have to open their cancer-room's door to the non smoking room. So this is really not working. Aargau should follow many other world-class places and prohibit all indoor smoking.
I understand you have 15 inspectors for the entire canton and the penalty is first a warning and then litigation in which the court will decide the penalty. If you have the full text of the law, I would really appreciate if you could email it to me.
Thanks and Best Regards
Reza Ganjavi
~~~
- The new non smoking rules in Switzerland are unbelievable -- nobody thought it would happen -- but still, long way to go. The places of heavy smoke still reek and are toxic -- maybe it will take a year for it to get less toxic. One place I went into has a smoking section separated by a door and a connected bar that freely allows the smoke to travel (like piss in swimming pool).
- Cinemas for 14 and over show advertisement for cigarettes. Shame !! Big Tobacco drug pushers still have a lot of power here.
~~~
Dr. Thomas Cerny, professor of medical oncology at Bern University and head of oncology at St Gallen Cantonal Hospital
There is a chance of avoiding roughly 40 per cent of cancers and that’s by avoiding smoking, smoking, smoking - active and passive. It’s also avoiding sunburn, exercising daily and it’s obviously also what we eat. We have to be careful, avoiding massive intakes of alcohol and so on.
~~~
It's February and the most cunning pro-smoking ad shows up in the morning free paper thousands read include many youngsters. Shame!!
~~~
Dear Mr. Meyer [CEO, SBB]
Switzerland has come a long way in protecting its people from getting exposed, involuntarily, to hundreds of poisons in the air by inhaling second-hand (passive) smoke.
It took a lot of lobbying on my and other people's part to get SBB to make Swiss trains non-smoking years after several other European countries took this action. I suppose our lobby was up against pressure on the part of Big Tobacco to take no action. Anyway, congratulations to SBB for that and for making Zurich HB's underground platforms smoke-free and making waiting rooms non-smoking, items which I and others lobbied for.
Next health-related problem to tackle is smoking in ticket lines which should be forbidden. Every sensible person knows smoking in ticket lines when people ahead and before you are hurt, is not right, but many people do it and their excuse is that it is not forbidden. I have also heard from ticket agents that they are bothered by people who smoke while they are at the counter.
Lastly, you may want to consider making indoor stations non-smoking like they have in many countries.
Thanks for your attention to this matter.
Kind Regards
Reza Ganjavi
~~~
Another sad story of a smoker enslaved to the Tobacco mafia. Every bit of the story is sad, boring and pathetic. I am tired of talking with smokers, specially older ones. But I tried -- the main theme being: attention. It's a sad vicious circle of cig making the body feel miserable and then smoking to combat the misery which is disgusting and hopeless. And this government, oldest democracy in the world, is not doing anything fundamental about it -- they must love the cigarette tax. Yesterday, walking into Balgrist in Zurich, world class hospital, it stunk from cigarette smoke. Go shopping in Coop in Tagipark, huge supermarket, and you have no choice, whether you're young or old, sick or healthy, child or adult, to inhale poison gas upon entering the store, and the pathetic explanation of the company has been: when it's mandated by law, we will make our restaurant non-smoking. Hello!? Migro's, another chain, already made their restaurants non-smoking. Why can't Coop? Fear of losing the revenue of coffee or whatever that the slaves of the Tobacco mafia consume? Even the Green party bats for smokers. What could you expect from the Conservatives then? [copied to smoking file, smoking-swiss file, Green party members, the fine gentleman CEO of Coop, and a few other members of Coop].
~~~
BY REZA GANJAVI
To: Hr. Josef Lang, Green Party Member of Swiss Parliament, Dorfstrasse 15, 6300 Zug
Dear Mr. Lang
Apologies for writing in English, I hope you understand English.
It is disappointing to see the Swiss Green party so much pro-smoking and pro-drugs. It's true that marijuana is green but that doesn't mean the Green party is there to protect potheads.
Your statement in the news that: "People have died from alcohol and heroin, but not from cannabis," is utterly false. People smoking marijuana for recreational reasons end up with a number of psychological disorders, confusion, and lack of motivation - and physical disorders similar to smoking cigarettes. John Lennon was killed by a man who was high on cannabis. It is important that this drug is regulated. I respect marijuana as a medicine but for casual users it should remain illegal because its regular use is harmful and damaging to physical, mental, and emotional health.
Did you know that according to a recent study by the University of Mississippi's Potency Monitoring Project, the THC (the psychoactive) content of marijuana in 1983 was under 4 percent and now it's almost 10%. This means the drug has gotten more than twice as strong as it was in 1983 and before that when the hippies used to smoke it. Regular use can make people crazy specially given today's very strong doses.
In speaking with Mr. Geri Mueller whom I believe smokes cigarettes himself, I could not believe the level of sympathy for smokers which is a real problem here in Switzerland. Philip Morris should be scared of the Green party but instead they seem to have found friends there. You guys should be the ones who should fight with all vigor, not for smokers but for those of us who are forced to inhale second hand smoke when we go to eat out.
This great country is sabotaged by Big Tobacco. They have abused and misused the good innate attitude of the Swiss. It's time that you start a fight to make all public places in the entire country non-smoking. How much less are you than Italy, Ireland, Germany, and many other countries where you can not smoke in any restaurant or public place. If the Green Party doesn't fight for this, who will? Surely not the conservatives who love the cigarette tax.
The most ridiculous things I've read is that laws do not effect teenage smoking. I wonder who sponsored such studies. I feel ashamed when I walk in Baden or Zurich bahnhof and see 10 and 12 year olds smoking cigarettes. This is a better society than that.
Best Wishes for a Wonderful and Good New Year.
Reza Ganjavi
~~~
Regarding music fair - www.musik-flohmarkt.ch in Roggwil
Hello. Is this fair just once a week?
The event was good but the smoking was absolutely disgusting. There were children there in the stands and they were obliged to inhale the poison just as adults did just because the organizers were DID NOT TAKE THIS MATTER SERIOUSLY. "We can not enforce it" is absolutely bullshit, excuse me. You tell the vendors that they are not allowed to smoke and you demand that and assign a penalty to it and they will not. The air was absolutely DISGUSTING. I hope you can do better next time regarding exposing your customers to cancerous poison gas.
Thanks.
Regards
R. Ganjavi
~~~
A no smoking sign is finally on the hand-thermal-bath room. I had written to the mayor about how people go in there and smoke and requested the sign to be put on the door.
~~~
Dear Mr. Leutolf
Thank you for establishing the foot thermal-bath. It's beautiful and wonderful. However it's being ruined by stupid smokers.
I suggest putting some NO SMOKING signs there and prohibiting smoking in that area.
I've seen regularly smokers sitting there -- putting their ash in the water -- and even if they don't, their cigarette and joint butts which they throw on the ground or behind the water container makes the place stink (and it's bad for the environment).
Some years ago I suggested putting no smoking signs on the SBB waiting area (on platform 1) and they did and the place improved a lot. Now I bet if you make the footbath area no smoking, it will really improve the place, and it will deter partiers who go there at night to do drugs. I've seen them.
Thanks and best regards
Reza Ganjavi
~~~
Marcel Kohler, Daniela Jordi, unternehmenskommunikation at tamedia.ch
Dear Mr. Marcel Kohler (20Minuten), Mr. Pietro Supino (Tamedia AG)
Shame on 20Minuten for helping to mislead and brainwash people by publishing cigarette advertising like today's advert on Parisienne.
Are you really so desperate for the income? Can you not take the important step of refusing to support Big Tobacco drug pushers?
Regards
R. Ganjavi
Mr. Rolf Hiltl – Owner, Hiltl Zurich (Established 1898)
Dear Mr. Hiltl:
Last night we came to your newly renovated restaurant. I have been your customer over the years and have enjoyed the vegetarian food and friendly service both at Hiltl and Tibits.
The new restaurant looks great. However, we could not stand it and left.
The buffet area was so smoky from cancer agents (cigarette smoke) that when you looked up to the lights there was a fog of smoke dancing in front of them. What a pity that Hiltl's being so sympathetic to the cause of drug pushers (Big Tobacco) whose propaganda has totally brainwashed the good simple Swiss mind to believe it is about freedom. No, it’s about bondage, misery, and pain. 95% of smokers who want to stop can’t. That is misery.
Hiltl's sympathy for smokers means you’re exposing your customers to that cloud of poisonous gas (this is a medical scientific fact – cigarette smoke contains hundreds if not thousands of different poisons and carcinogens).
When someone urinates in the swimming pool, the urine can’t be stopped from spreading around. Your non-smoking section is not effective. We attempted to sit in this illusory non-smoking section and our clothes and hair smelled like cigarette smoke after 5 minutes. We looked up and there was a cloud of smoke dancing in front of the light, in the non-smoking section.
The “restaurant” area had a 30 minute wait and our only option for waiting was in the smoky room. The buffet area was so smoky that despite finding a table, we decided to leave.
This is a vegetarian restaurant. J. Krishnamurti and many other great people, famous and not famous, ate there. Sympathy for smokers seems to be contradictory to the health reasons of being a vegetarian.
Regards
Reza Ganjavi
<snipped phone, email>
TO: Mr. Hansueli Loosli, CEO – Coop
Dear Mr. Loosli:
I was at Tagipark Coop today for the first time and I was appalled that a lot of people were smoking right there in the center of the passage thus exposing not only your employees who have no choice but to inhale 1000's of poisons contained in cigarette smoke, but your customers. I left there after spending a bit of time at the customer service desk nearby the cancer center (restaurant) and my clothes smelled like cigarettes. This is a REAL SHAME. I can't believe you guys are so sympathetic to the purpose of drug pushers (Big Tobacco) and have maintained this stone-age mentality. When someone pisses in a swimming pool you can not prevent the piss to go everywhere. The No Smoking sings you have next to the cancer factory is meaningless. The smoke travels throughout the store. What do you say to this?
Kind Regards
Mr. R. Ganjavi – a loyal customer
~~~
Dear Melanie
Ok, as far as I understand Coop will only consider a non smoking measure if it is required to do so by law.
Therefore Coop has absolutely no interest or intention to even consider taking a proactive step to protect its employees and customers against the miserable scene I witnessed in one of your supermarkets a few days ago as described in my fax to your CEO, where even your employees were disgruntled but had no choice but to bear the cigarette smoke from the restaurant because they need their job. The smokers were sitting only a few meters away from your customer service desk and the rest of the market.
2 days ago I was there again. There were a group of children selling charitable goods for their school. These kids had no choice but to sit 2 meters aways from the Cancer Corner.
And your position is that you do not care about this. You do not want to do anything about it until you are forced to do so by law. You are clearly not obligated by law to provide a smoking section in your restaurants are you? No. You have that section because you want to have it. And you are ignoring the risks or at least not willing to do anything about it. Please tell me if I understood this wrong.
Thank you.
Kind Regards
Reza Ganjavi
~~~
Hi Melanie
So you are responding to a case without having the customer complaint letter. Ok !
I think the concept of separating smokers from non smokers is an illusion unless you have an absolutely sealed area with a separate air conditioning system. Please tell your CEO, and I will too, once I finish discussing with you that surveys have shown restaurants do NOT lose business when they go non smoking.
Here is the original message.
Please come back to me with any feedback, no matter how long it takes - I am patient.
Thanks.
Reza
~~~
Dear Ms. Melanie Marti, Deputy Head of Consumer Service, COOP, Switzerland
Thank you for your investigation and thorough response.
I understand you to say that customers do not respect the no-smoking sign and it's the customers' fault that they take ashtrays to nonsmoking tables and make it a smoking section on their own and management finds it hard to enforce no smoking on no-smoking tables. I do not believe this. If you guys can manage all these stores and all these products and employees all over the country, managing customers to not smoke in no-smoking section can not be difficult. It is not that it is difficult, it is that the management doesn't care. They don't give this matter important. I saw a group of children at a charity table a mere 2 or so meters from smoking tables. Your staff will not care if management doesn't care. If management cares they will tell the staff to make it part of their job to give notice to smokers on non smoking tables. This is very easy. What the store manager is telling you is lip service. Is an excuse. I am not surprised because sympathy with Big Tobacco and their propaganda is a dark side of this great country. The Big Tobacco have got my good Swiss brothers and sisters fooled; they've taken advantage of your goodness and simplicity.
I am happy to hear more no-smoking signs will be provided. But please realize if the person in the table next to me smokes that smoke travels -- like I said, it's a rude example, but it's just like pissing in the pool.
I ask you again, to forget about what future constraints the government will provide. Be proactive. Take a bold move and make all your coop restaurants non smoking. At least do this for the favor of supermarket shoppers, staff at the customer service desk, and cashiers who are exposed to second hand smoke from this cancer factory day in and day out.
I will copy this to your CEO.
Thanks for your efforts. I consider the case closed.
Kind Regards
Reza Ganjavi
~~~
Hr. Hansueli Loosli - CEO Coop
Dear Mr. Loosli
I am writing to update you on my communication with your customer service department and new critical findings which I think you will find interesting.
Please find below, the text of the most recent email exchanged between me and Ms. Melanie Marti who kindly looked into this matter. A central theme in her response is that “we follow the law” which sounds positive but what she really means by it is that we will make our restaurants non smoking or we will protect children who are playing 5 meters from smokers, only when the law mandates it.
I am a loyal customer of coop and very fond of many of your products specially your brands of natural foods and products. I almost buy everything organic (bio).
Mr. Loosli, last weekend I visited the coop again and took a look at things in light of Ms. Marti’s feedback. I am sorry to inform you of the following facts which seem to not have been relayed to her by the local management:
- There are 27 smoking tables and 9 non smoking tables.
- The distance between the smoking and non smoking tables is sometimes 50 centimeter!
- There is a children playing area which is about 5 meters away from a smoking table
As I relayed before, there are sometimes children who setup a fundraising table there. They’re a few meters from 27 smoking tables.
The rest is relayed in my previous mails and Ms. Marti has copies of everything, I hope. Anyway, a copy can also be found on my website: www.rezamusic.com
Mr. Loosli, I encourage you to take a lead and declare all your restaurants non smoking. There is nothing to stop you from doing this. Surveys have shown restaurants do not lose business from becoming non smoking. The only person you’re serving by having such sympathy for smokers is Big Tobacco, and there’s a lot of damage being done to people as a result of this which I feel is contrary to Coop’s philosophy of operation.
If I can be of help or can answer anything please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Kind Regards
Reza Ganjavi
~~~
Thanks.
coop wrote:
> Dear Mr. Ganjavi
> Also the best and good wishes for you!
> Kind regards,
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: R. Ganjavi
An: <>
Betreff: [Fwd: Damages Coop is doing to the health of children etc.]
FYI , with Kind Regards and good wishes for the New Year.
Ganjavi
~~~
Dear Mr. Loosli:
Many thanks for the note.
Happy New Year as well to you - I meant to wish it in the last email.
"The customers' right to make their own decisions is highly respected by Coop. Therefore we try to ensure that non-smokers as well as smokers are feeling comfortable in our restaurants."
Excellent point. However, the non smokers have no choice but to inhale the smokers' smoke! Of course they have the choice not to go to your restaurants but then that would not equate to feeling comfortable there which is your intention.
Anyway, best wishes
Kind Regards
Reza
~~~
Dear Mr Loosli:
I noticed on my last visit to Tagipark Coop that the distance between the children play area and smoking section has been extended, which is a good thing. Apparently they made the tables adjacent to the playground non smoking. So, thanks for your influence on that.
There are still far too many smoking tables, and they're far too close to non smoking tables with absolutely no barrier. Second hand smoke still poses a problem and exposes your staff, the customer service desk which is near the restaurant, the cashiers, and of course, restaurant employees, to 1000's of unwanted smoke and if they want to keep their job they have no choice but to inhale this poisonous consequence of you wanting to keep the smoker customers happy. I guess it takes a special kind of energy and vision to take this positive step and make all your restaurants non-smoking. Believe me, it will have nothing but positive consequences on the health of all people as well as your image as a progressive health conscious CEO and company, and fits right in line with the Naturaplan . . . Some formal studies have shown that eliminating smoking from restaurants does not cause loss of business.
All the best wishes
Reza Ganjavi
A spontaneous post on rec.music.classical.guitar
Europeans are so backward when it comes to curbing drug pushers (a.k.a. cigarette companies). During the break people go outside the concert hall (yet still indoors) and smoke their lungs out and guess what: the smoke comes right in the concert hall -- so disgusting -- and this is in the most cultured of societies and cities with people of their fancy suites.
Same thing in cinemas.
Get a life Europe :-) and stop being so sympathetic to Big Tobacco. True, their tax funds social security but at the expense of so many lives turning unhappy and unhealthy. It's like some hypocrite rules such as: you're fined if not wearing a seat belt but we don't stop cars that are putting black smoke in the air (you see this in Tehran, Cairo, Athens, Paris, etc.) . Same thing with tobacco: they like the tax dollar but don't give a dime about the 12 year olds who are addicted and the 90% of adults who want to quit but can't and suffer. Isn't this hypocrisy? wear your belt because if you have a crash it will cost insurance companies and government, but smoke as much as you want and suffer in your closet, but we don't care. I say it's stupidity because smokers also cost the state and insurances a lot -- but then again, most cancer cases lead to quick death so maybe it's not too costly. Also there is a lot of cases of suicide in Switzerland for example: richest of nations, and highest of suicide rates! wow!!
But people's appreciation for music, and the ability to meet and be in touch with people, directly, not through windows of metal boxes called cars, keeps me here for now.
I feel better now :-))
PS -- this girl was talking on her mobile phone during a concert last night -- hush hushing, nevertheless disturbing enough that many people turned around in protest :-)
Best Regards
Reza Ganjavi