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In late 1999, the Ontario Restaurant Association (ORA) and
the Ontario Hotel and Motel Association (OHMA) combined to
form the Ontario Restaurant, Hotel and Motel Association (ORHMA).
Prior to amalgamation, the ORA had been active in opposing
smoke-free bylaw proposals in the Greater Toronto Area, Sault
Ste. Marie and other parts of the province. The ORA led the
campaign in opposition to the 1996 City of Toronto bylaw,
opposition which helped result in Council's decision not to
make bars and restaurants 100% smoke-free by allowing a small
increment of smoke-free space in an amended version of the
bylaw implemented in 1997.
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In 1998, the then-ORA began a project which the ORHMA continued,
namely the promotion of unenclosed ventilation as an alternative
to 100% smoke-free policies. The ORA's first attempt to prove
that ventilation technology could substitute for smoke-free
involved set-up of a demonstration project at the Black Dog
Pub in Scarborough, Ontario. The results of the demonstration
project were announced at a June 8, 1999 news conference,
at which ORA/Greater Toronto Hotel Association (GTHA) officials
and their technical consultants claimed that the ventilation
technology in the pub cut ETS levels in the non-smoking area
of the pub to levels comparable to a publicly-regulated smoke-free
foodcourt in the City of Toronto. Subsequent to the ORA/GTHA
announcement, City of Toronto staff visited the comparison
site in the foodcourt and found it to be contaminated with
second-hand smoke from adjacent restaurants. Numerous analyses
and reviews of the technical documents presented at the June
8th news conference were carried out by analysts in both Canada
and the United States. All concluded that pilot project and
a subsequent series of tests at the same site which were written
up and published in 1999, failed to prove that ventilation
technology could effectively eliminate second-hand smoke from
indoor premises.
What was not widely known at the time of the Black Dog Pub
demonstration was that ORA President Terry Mundell and his
technical consultant, Derrick Finn, (click
here to view a memo naming Finn as a "technical advisor"
to the CTMC), were collaborating with the Canadian Tobacco
Manufacturers' Council (CTMC) in promoting ventilation and
in taking other steps to attempt to prevent the City of Toronto
from passing a 100% smoke-free bylaw. Mundell's actions and
the ORA's collaboration with the CTMC are described in a July
15, 1998 CTMC memorandum. Click
here to view the memo.
Another excellent source of information on the ORA/ORHMA
promotion of ventilation and collaboration with the tobacco
industry can be found in a recent publication of Physicians
for a Smoke-free Canada titled "Behind
the Scenes: How the Canadian Tobacco Companies promoted 'ventilation'
solutions to avoid restrictions on second-hand smoke"
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