Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today enjoyed smoke-free lunch with Dr. Jeffrey S. Wigand, the anti-tobacco advocate and Founder of the non-profit organization SMOKE-FREE KIDS. Following the lunch, Dr. Wigand, who was depicted in the 1999 movie, The Insider, discussed his support for the New York City Indoor Smoke-Free Air Act of 2002. The lunch was at Union Square Café whose owner, Danny Meyer, voluntarily made the restaurant smoke-free several years ago. The legislation will expand the City's 1995 Smoke-Free Air Act by making the following locations smoke-free to protect workers: bars, restaurants of any size, offices, pool halls, bingo parlors, and bowling alleys. Hearings will begin on the bill tomorrow and Mayor Bloomberg will be the first to testify.

"I am enormously pleased that Dr. Wigand, a native New Yorker, has come home to show his support for the 2002 Smoke-Free Air Act," Mayor Bloomberg said. "Dr. Wigand is a public health hero. No one has sacrificed as much as he has to educate the public, especially young children, about the dangers of smoking. Dr. Wigand took on the tobacco industry before the days of big settlements and helped get the truth out. I am happy to welcome him back to New York City, which I believe will become a national leader for clean air and safe workplaces."

"Second hand smoke is a class A carcinogen --like asbestos-- and kills 55,000 Americans each year, affecting children the most," Dr. Wigand said. "The tobacco industry has known since 1974 that second hand smoke was a health risk but used obfuscation, lawyers and cynical public relations tactics to deceive the public and the health community. I applaud Mayor Bloomberg for standing up to the industry in order to prevent more lives from being taken. It has been good for business of other jurisdictions and I look forward to returning to the world's greatest City after Mayor Bloomberg signs this historic legislation."

Dr. Jeffrey S. Wigand Ph.D., MAT, was born in New York City and now lives in Charleston, South Carolina. He earned degrees in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and more recently obtained a Masters Degree in Secondary Education (MAT) from the University of Louisville. Dr. Wigand held senior management positions with a number of leading health care companies, including Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer, and then served as Vice President for Research and Development for Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation from December 1988 to March 1993. After his separation from Brown & Williamson, Dr. Wigand worked with governmental agencies investigating the tobacco industry.

Dr. Wigand achieved national prominence in 1995 when he became the tobacco industry's highest-ranking former executive to address public health and smoking issues. He made the truth known to the public about the industry's disregard for health and safety during an interview with 60 Minutes and during a deposition he gave in an action against the tobacco companies. Dr. Wigand was sued by Brown & Williamson because of his public disclosures about the industry's efforts to minimize the health and safety issue of tobacco use. (Louisville-based Brown & Williamson is owned by BAT Industries, Plc, the world's second largest tobacco concern). The lawsuit was dismissed as a condition of the June 20, 1997 historic settlement between the Attorneys General of 40 States and the tobacco industry. Dr. Wigand has received numerous awards and public recognition for his action in revealing tobacco company research and marketing practices and he continues his efforts to reduce teen tobacco use through a non-profit organization he formed, SMOKE-FREE KIDS.

Dr. Wigand taught Japanese and Science (Biology, Chemistry and Physical Sciences) at duPont Manual High School, a national school of academic excellence, in Louisville, Kentucky for three years and received national recognition for his teaching skills when he was awarded the Sallie Mae First Class Teacher of the Year in 1996. He was one of 51 teachers recognized nationwide. Dr. Wigand seeks to use his knowledge about the tobacco industry to educate children how the industry uses the media, the entertainment industry, sports events, music and deceptive advertising to introduce children to tobacco and "hook them young, hook them for life." Dr. Wigand and SMOKE-FREE KIDS use scientific methods of discovery, actual industry data and documents to explain how the industry targets kids and youth to generate new tobacco addicts. This education process enables kids to make their own responsible healthy decisions. SMOKE-FREE KIDS conducts educational seminars with all levels of students, in elementary, middle or high schools, as well as colleges and postgraduate institutions of law, medicine, business management and education. SMOKE-FREE KIDS provides scientific and technical input to organizations developing policy or regulating tobacco products such as the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The 2002 Smoke-Free Air Act is supported by a wide array of restaurant and bar proprietors, bartenders, waitress and waiters, union members, workers, and leading health experts and advocates, including New York City's medical schools, the American Lung Association, American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, and community organizations.

Studies have shown that employees in bars and in restaurants where smoking is permitted have a 50% higher risk of lung cancer than other workers, even after taking their own smoking habits into account, and that working one eight-hour shift in smoky bar exposes one to the same amount of carcinogens as smoking half a pack of cigarettes a day. Exposure by non-smokers for only 30 minutes changes the blood supply to the heart, increasing the risk of a heart attack.

Statistics from other jurisdictions where clean indoor air legislation has been enacted have not shown an adverse economic impact; in California, where smoking has been prohibited in bars as well as restaurants since 1998, sales of beer, wine, and liquor in taverns increased in every quarter in 1998, 1999, and 2000, the last year for which such data is available.

"1,000 New Yorkers die each year from second-hand smoke. We simply must do something about this public health menace," Mayor Bloomberg concluded.