IaBL Calls for Mandatory Retirement Assets Census as Part of Social Security Privatization

IaBL Calls for Mandatory Retirement Assets Census as Part of Social Security Privatization

Investment and Benefits Literacy. org Calls for the US Census to include household information on all accumulated retirement assets. The Census Bureau would forward the aggregated retirement savings data to the Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration for distribution to every taxpayer.

West Caldwell, NJ (PRWEB) December 9, 2004

Investment and Benefits Literacy. org (IaBL), a non-profit education clearinghouse specializing in training Lower and Middle Income (LMI) workers on their health benefits plans and retirement savings programs, urges Government Regulators and Congressional lawmakers to create a "milepost map" of demographic benchmarks as an essential priority of any new Social Security retirement-income reform.

"It's been 20 years since the first 401k plans were introduced, and the empirical data is abundant and easy to interpret", says Douglas Klein, Executive Director of IaBL, "the establishment of new 401k plans has virtually ceased in both the large and small employer segments, with only half of U. S. workers active in a qualified retirement plan.

“More significantly, there are only 5.5 million workers older than the age of 55 still participating in 401k plans, compared to 11.4 million active workers ages 45-55. For those employees over the age of 60, only 37% have a retirement account balance larger than $70,000. Additionally, black and Spanish-speaking workers are far less likely than white workers to participate in voluntary retirement plans."

IaBL is calling for the creation of a systematic survey that would more precisely gauge the success of our national savings efforts, especially for older workers and those in the LMI tax-brackets.

"We propose that every American household, when they complete their Census questionnaires every 10 years, include the total balances of their qualified retirement savings accounts ", says Klein.

IaBL proposes legislation that would require the Department of LaborÂ’s Employee Benefits Security Administration to issue a report detailing the total savings of all Americans, parsed into discrete demographic categories, sorted by age, income brackets and heritage. In addition, every US worker would receive a statement from the EBSA every 10 years, estimating for them the actuarial balances they would need to replace 50% of their estimated final salary earned at age 67.

“Existing Federal Code, no matter how well-intentioned, doesn't account for the fact that it has become unlikely for an American worker in contemporary society to keep a private-sector job, without interruption, until the normal Social Security retirement age of 65-67 is attained”.

“The Congress did an adequate job establishing the “front-end” of our retirement savings infrastructure”, explains Klein. “The crisis lies in the “back-end” of the employee’s working career – putting money aside and investing over a career to accumulate a retirement plan lump sum – and that element of the agenda is now dominated by the US financial services industry.”

“After studying this matter carefully, IaBL believes that the Government needs to take a more prominent role in officially informing American workers where their progress lies over time – especially elderly and lower income workers who traditionally don’t have access to financial advisors and to online investment literacy services.”

“By reviewing and analyzing the Census Data compiled by the Department of Labor, all US workers will get an official diagnostic report on their savings progress, compared to their peer groups nationwide. We must all acknowledge together that it’s not appropriate for the private sector to have sole responsibility for engineering the retirement security of 50-60 million workers”, Klein concludes.

For the full text of the IaBL Retirement Census Proposal, please visit the Articles section of our website www. investmentliteracy. org.

About Douglas Klein, Executive Director

Mr. Klein is a widely-quoted media source for technical information relating to all aspects of employee benefit plans. He has worked in the Benefits and Investment industry since 1986 as a product specialist and a client relationship executive for Prudential Investments, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and United Healthcare. Mr. Klein is currently a member of the Economics Department faculty at Kean University (Union, New Jersey) and he is a Project Manager for financial literacy campaigns in New Jersey's urban communities.

Benefits and Investment Literacy. org

759 Bloomfield Avenue, #230

West Caldwell, NJ 07006

Contact:

Douglas Klein

Executive Director

(201) 935-3995

Dklein@investmentliteracy. org

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The SCOOTER Store Celebrates 350,000th Delivery of Power Mobility Equipment and Their Commitment to Excellent Service

The SCOOTER Store Celebrates 350,000th Delivery of Power Mobility Equipment and Their Commitment to Excellent Service

California Man Receives Power Wheelchair that Will Increase His Freedom and Mobility

New Braunfels, TX (PRWEB) July 25, 2008

The SCOOTER Store (http://www. thescooterstore. com) announced today that it recently made its 350,000th delivery of power mobility equipment, a major milestone for the company, which has improved freedom and independence for people living with physical disabilities for the past 17 years.

Arnie Gallegos, 32, of Blythe, Calif. was the recipient of a Jazzy 614HD power chair. Like others before him, the mobility equipment has made a big difference in his life. "He really enjoys it," said his father, Valdo Gallegos, whose son suffers from Down syndrome.

The SCOOTER Store has been improving the quality of life for seniors and people living with disabilities since it opened in 1991.

"We understand the importance of mobility for people who suffer from illnesses and conditions that limit their mobility," said Doug Harrison, CEO and Founder of The SCOOTER Store. "It's heartening to provide mobility equipment (http://www. thescooterstore. com) that can dramatically change someone's life. At The SCOOTER Store, we recognize the importance of mobility, and we all work diligently to get the right mobility equipment to the people who need it to improve their quality of life."

Moreover, Mr. Harrison noted that The SCOOTER Store is also committed to excellence and has been a strong supporter over the years for improving quality standards in the power mobility industry and urging that suppliers be fully accredited to serve Medicare beneficiaries. The SCOOTER Store, which is the nation's largest supplier of power mobility equipment, has been accredited since 2003. The company has received a 98.7% customer satisfactory rating from Senior Approved Services, a leading consumer rating service.

"The reality is that we serve some of the most vulnerable people in our society," Mr. Harrison said. "We are honored for the opportunity to help them improve their mobility."

The SCOOTER Store has also been a corporate good citizen. The company operates a "Gift of Mobility" program, which provides more than $200,000 worth of free power wheelchairs (http://www. thescooterstore. com/products/powerchairs. aspx) and scooters each year to people who don't have the resources to obtain them. In 2007, The SCOOTER Store provided 112 men, women and children with free power wheelchairs and scooters. The equipment improved the quality of life for people with physical disabilities who lacked coverage through private health insurance or Medicare.

Working with esteemed community service agencies, such as The Dream Foundation, American Red Cross, ADL Foundation/Mobility Aids for the Uninsured and National Chronic Pain Society, The SCOOTER Store has made Gift of Mobility donations throughout the country.

"The Gift of Mobility program exemplifies our values," Mr. Harrison said. "It is our way to give something back to those who need it most. We look forward to continuing to improve independence and mobility for people living with disabilities."

About The SCOOTER Store

Since 1991, The SCOOTER Store has helped provide freedom and independence to more than 350,000 people with limited mobility. The SCOOTER Store offers a full line of durable medical equipment, including power wheelchairs (http://www. thescooterstore. com/products/powerchairs. aspx) and scooters (http://www. thescooterstore. com/products/scooters. aspx), lifts (http://www. thescooterstore. com/products/lifts. aspx), ramps (http://www. thescooterstore. com/products/ramps. aspx) and accessories in 48 states, including Puerto Rico. The SCOOTER Store has worked with more than 100,000 physicians, providing expertise and quality service to their patients, and is accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (http://www. thescooterstore. com/aboutus/achc. aspx).

For more information, contact:
Lynn Gonzales
Media Relations
830-626-4064

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WhatsUp Gold WhatsVirtual 2.0 Now Available From the Network Management Division of Ipswitch, Inc

WhatsUp Gold WhatsVirtual 2.0 Now Available From the Network Management Division of Ipswitch, Inc.

Solution supports VMware vCenter, Virtual Clusters, High Availability, vMotion live migrations

Lexington, MA (PRWEB) July 14, 2010

Ipswitch, Inc., the developer of the WhatsUp Gold suite of innovative IT management software, today announced that WhatsUp Gold WhatsVirtual 2.0 is now available and includes support for VMware vCenter, vMotion, High Availability and Virtual Clusters. WhatsVirtual 2.0 natively integrates with the VMware vSphere API and discovers, maps, monitors and manages ESXi hosts and their associated virtual machines from a single console and also delivers accurate and up-to-date availability and performance information across VMware-based virtual server infrastructures.

“We are very impressed with the outstanding monitoring and reporting capabilities of WhatsVirtual 2.0, as well as the detailed overview of each host server, which allows us to quickly analyze performance and resource issues,” said John Shiells, senior network analyst, Nucleus Information Service, Inc. “We also find that viewing and reporting on historical log information for vMotion and High Availability in the same console is a huge time saver. The only time we use vCenter now is to fix a problem; everything else we can see and control with WhatsUp Gold,” Shiells said.

WhatsVirtual 2.0 Features
vCenter – discovers, monitors and controls all virtual resources through vCenter to offer complete accuracy and reliability

vMotion – monitors live migrations as VMs move across physical servers to ensure a complete, accurate mapping of physical server relations at all times, including historical information and reports combined with powerful alerting capabilities

High Availability (HA) – gives complete access to historical information and reports, combined with powerful alerting capabilities to track VMs as they are automatically restarted or moved to other physical servers due to hardware or operating system failures

Virtual Clusters VMware cluster discovery and mapping VMware cluster configurations are allowed so users can perform manual associations and cluster grouping right from the WhatsVirtual interface Out-of-the-box Workspace Views are available to provide immediate, deep visibility across virtual cluster entities Alert Center thresholds are configurable at the virtual cluster level to rapidly find issues detected anywhere in the infrastructure Web Reports contain virtual cluster information for fast access to VMware-related performance information, anytime, anywhere

“Since its introduction earlier this year, WhatsVirtual has garnered the tremendous support of its users, who are increasingly challenged with management issues resulting from cloud computing,” said Ennio Carboni, president, Ipswitch, Inc.’s Network Management Division. “In keeping with our constant efforts to exceed the expectations of our customers, we have engineered a new version of WhatsVirtual that offers a host of innovative features, including vCenter, vMotion and High Availability support. Now organizations can truly optimize availability and performance of their entire infrastructure from WhatsUp Gold’s single point of control.” Carboni said.

Pricing and Availability
WhatsVirtual 2.0 is available now at an introductory price of $1,495 USD (MSRP). A minimum of WhatsUp Gold 14.2 is required to run WhatsVirtual 2.0. For more details on WhatsVirtual 2.0, visit: http://www. whatsupgold. com/products/releases/index. aspx (http://www. whatsupgold. com/products/releases/index. aspx).

About the Network Management Division of Ipswitch, Inc. 
The Network Management Division of Ipswitch, Inc. is the developer of the WhatsUp Gold suite of innovative IT management software. WhatsUp Gold delivers comprehensive network, system, application and event log monitoring and management solutions for small and medium businesses and enterprises. Built on a modular, yet integrated architecture, the affordable and easy-to-use solutions scale with the size and complexity of any physical or virtual IT infrastructure. From a single console, WhatsUp Gold supports standard IT management tasks including automated discovery, mapping, real-time monitoring, alerting, troubleshooting and reporting. More than 100,000 networks worldwide use WhatsUp Gold solutions to assure the availability, health and security of their critical business infrastructure today.

Ipswitch, Inc.’s Network Management Division recently added to its product line complete, easy-to-use solutions for Windows Security Event Management (SEM) and Log Management for small businesses and enterprise-level organizations suite with the acquisition of Dorian Software Creations, Inc. WhatsUp Gold was named Network Management Product of 2010 by Network Computing Magazine and earned the Network Products Guide 2010 Product Innovation Award in Network Management. To learn more about WhatsUp Gold – the best value in IT Management software, download a free trial or to make a purchase, please visit: http://www. whatsupgold. com/products/download/ (http://www. whatsupgold. com/products/download/).

*All mentioned trademarks, product and company names cited herein are the property of their respective owners.*

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Arizona Healthcare Wages Rise by 2.7%; Dietetics Jobs Lead in Increases

Arizona Healthcare Wages Rise by 2.7%; Dietetics Jobs Lead in Increases

WageWatch, Inc.,(http://www. WageWatch. com) the leading online compensation and benefits survey company, announced today that analysis of its 2006 Arizona Hospital/Healthcare Compensation Survey shows wages increasing by 2.7% over 2005 wages, with the highest overall wage increase in support, clerical, and technician jobs.

Scottsdale, AZ (PRWEB) July 31, 2006

WageWatch, Inc.,(http://www. WageWatch. com (http://www. WageWatch. com)) the leading online compensation and benefits survey company, announced today that analysis of its 2006 Arizona Hospital/Healthcare Compensation Survey shows wages increasing by 2.7% over 2005 wages, with the highest overall wage increase in support, clerical, and technician jobs.

The survey collected data for 165 jobs from both 2005 and 2006 in 50 hospitals and clinics throughout Arizona, representing 14,000 beds or 85% of total beds in the State. Approximately 29,000 employees' wages and salaries are represented in the survey both years.

"We have very solid data showing that compensation levels for the professional-level healthcare employee increased by 2.4%, but the average wage for a healthcare support person increased by even more, by 3.5%, " said Margaret Dyekman, President and COO of WageWatch. Jobs such as therapists, LPNs, RNs, and case managers are considered professional-level jobs, while aides, medical records clerks, receptionists, housekeepers, transporters, and unit secretaries are classified as healthcare support jobs. Certified Nursing Assistants in Home Health, Biomedical Electronic Technicians, Maintenance Mechanics, and Physical Therapy Assistants have average pay increasing significantly greater than the other jobs in the healthcare support category.

"The really hot field this year in terms of pay change is dietetics and nutrition. Wages for Chief Clinical Dietician and for Dietician increased by over 10%, and even the Dietetic Technician increased by almost twice as much as peer jobs," continued Dyekman.

WageWatch's Hospital/Healthcare Compensation Survey is endorsed by the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association and supplemented with an employee benefits survey. For additional information to participate or purchase results, contact Jim Crews, 480-657-6504, or jcrews @ WageWatch. com.

ABOUT WAGE WATCH

WageWatch (www. WageWatch. com),the leading Web-based source for compensation and benefits data, provides instantly accessible industry wage, salary and benefits data, delivered to any Internet-enabled device. Using a patent-pending technology, WageWatch surveys industries and provides companies with the data they need to make their compensation and benefits decisions. As a pure information provider, WageWatch gives its customers the ability to see what their competitors are paying and position themselves in their markets.

Contact: mdyekman @ wagewatch. com,

888.330.WAGE(9243)

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New Article Published in Modern Health News. org Finds US Health Care Slipping, Prevention More Important than Ever

New Article Published in Modern Health News. org Finds US Health Care Slipping, Prevention More Important than Ever

The results of a private journalistic inquiry conducted by Modern Health News. org concludes that valid preventative treatments are being turned down by federal authorities, and could be the major contributor to the poor state of US health care. The results of a private journalistic inquiry conducted by Modern Health News. org concludes that valid preventative treatments are being turned down by federal authorities, and could be the major contributor to the poor state of US health care.

Boise, ID (PRWEB) April 15, 2008

The results of a private journalistic inquiry conducted by Modern Health News. org concludes that valid preventative treatments are being turned down by federal authorities, and could be the major contributor to the poor state of US health care.

America reportedly has the best health care in the world including some of the best educated and most talented physicians, plus dazzlingly sophisticated medical technology. But despite this, we don't have the best health care system. This underscores the need to prevent disease before it sends one to a hospital or ER. However, some non-pharmaceutical, scientifically proved natural medicines used and approved in Europe appear to be suppressed by government agencies here in the USA. 

What evidence supports first, slippage in America's health care ranking and two, possible suppression of certain natural medicines?

The fact American health care is headed south is supported by a recent World Health Organization analysis of the world's entire health care systems. WHO employed five performance indicators to measure health systems in its 191 member states, and found that France provides the best overall health care followed among major countries by Italy, Spain, Oman, Austria and Japan.

The U. S. health system spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product (GDP) than any other country yet ranks 37th (out of 191 countries) according to its performance, according to the WHO report.

There are many reasons for the fact the US lags so far behind in terms of its health care system, not the least of which is the fact that so many people who suffer from preventable illnesses don't have access to suitable health care. Some simply lose their coverage when a job ends or are under-insured.

Consider:

44.8 million Americans are without health insurance according to 2005 U. S. Census Bureau estimates.

16 million people are under-insured.

18,000 people die prematurely each year because they lack health coverage, according to the Institute of Medicine.

What are those who lack basic coverage or who are under-insured to do? One thing they can do is try to prevent illness by getting and staying fit, eating right and possibly taking a few choice supplements.

These are measures most mainstream doctors promote. But the story shifts when it comes to certain natural drugs.

Back in the 1980s a company in California headed up by a well known biophysicist began importing and promoting an herbal drug for arterial disease called PADMA 28. This natural medicine had been tested extensively in Europe including five double-blind studies conducted at major universities in Poland and published in various peer reviewed journals. The Swiss equivalent of the U. S. FDA found the proof of PADMA's efficacy so compelling for treating blockage of arteries in the lower extremities, referred to as peripheral arterial occlusive disease in medical parlance, that they approved it as a drug. 

But here in the US, PADMA did not enjoy the kind of support it did in Europe. Following extensive publication and promotion of its merits, the California-based company that introduced it was challenged by federal authorities to prove the claims they were making. The firm's scientific representatives provided the government agents with over 365 pages of lab tests, published studies and such.

The government's response?

They admitted the evidence was compelling but, by this very token, PADMA28 was essentially an unapproved drug. The company was issued an ultimatum: Put it through the FDA's approval process, or change the name and their advertising. Since the drug approval process would entail spending millions of dollars the firm didn't have, they opted to change the name and their PR track.

"It is not very surprising that the American health care is more concerned about money than health." said Dan Morgan, leading the investigation.

Today, this herbal drug -- which has been shown to lower cholesterol and triglycerides substantially, relieve angina and peripheral arterial occlusive disease, and even bolster the immune system -- is largely unknown and unsung. At least compared to FDA approved drugs for managing cholesterol and treating angina, some of which cause disconcerting side effects (PADMA 28 has none of any significance).

Thankfully, companies such as Pacific BioLogic ( http://www. pacificbiologic. com/Circulationframe. html (http://www. pacificbiologic. com/Circulationframe. html)) and Weller Health ( http://www. wellerhealth. com/shop/index. php? main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=3 (http://www. wellerhealth. com/shop/index. php? main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=3)) have kept PADMA28 alive here in the USA. Pacific BioLogic calls their PADMA product "Adaptrin", while Weller has dubbed theirs "Heartrol".

With America's health care ranking slipping steadily and so many citizens going under-insured or not insured at all, prevention becomes critical. Diet, exercise, and use of certain supplements are a given. The bad news is that there appear to be some scientifically proved products that can make a big difference in terms of preventing or treating certain human ills, but like PADMA28 are seemingly suppressed. The good news is that many of these are still around, although their scientific pedigrees are watered down and their original names are sometimes changed.

Next time you look for a preventative treatment, do your research. You really should not rely on television commercials that promote well funded, federally approved synthetic medications and treatments. See if there is an alternative medical company that promotes foreign products of merit. These may actually be more effective and less expensive than conventional treatments. For instance, a couple of major US based companies that import foreign medicines such as NutraCAM< ( http://www.nutracam.com (http://www.nutracam.com)) and native remedies (http://www.nativeremedies.com (http://www.nativeremedies.com)) make a point of selling scientifically validated natural and alternative products, many of which are regularly prescribed by mainstream medical practitioners in europe (germany and switzerland especially).

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Goddess 2000 Project and Pagan Pride Join Forces

Goddess 2000 Project and Pagan Pride Join Forces

Two influential International Pagan Organizations team up to serve the community and promote Art.

(PRWEB) July 16, 2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For More Info, Contact:

Abby Willowroot

Goddess 2000 Project ~ "A Goddess on Every Block!"

Http://www. goddess2000.org (http://www. goddess2000.org)
Willowweb@aol. com

707-745-4470

Suzanne "Cecylyna" Egbert

Executive Director, International Pagan Pride Project

Http://www. paganpride. org (http://www. paganpride. org)
Cecylyna@paganpride. org

317.916.9115

GODDESS 2000 PROJECT and INTL PAGAN PRIDE PROJECT Team Up for PPD

The Goddess 2000 Project (http://www. goddess2000.org (http://www. goddess2000.org)) and the

International Pagan Pride Project (http://www. paganpride. org (http://www. paganpride. org)) are

Pleased to announce that the two organizations have agreed to work together

Effective July 13, 2001.

This year's Pagan Pride Project Celebrations will be joined by Goddess 2000 Project coordinators and participants. Displays of Goddess & Pagan Art or "Create a Goddess" spaces where PPD attendees can exercise their own creativity, will be added to Pagan Pride Celebrations in many local areas, as part of the G2000 Project's "A Goddess on Every Block!". initiative.

So far this year, PPD has formally set up 83 Pagan Pride events during the month of September in the US, Canada, Brazil, Italy, the Netherlands, and Australia. The participation of the Goddess 2000 Project's local coordinators and participants will also help to create and organize Pagan Pride events in areas where PPD does not currently have events. Goddess 2000 Project has local coordinators in

52 countries.

PPD Executive Director Suzanne "Cecylyna Dewr" Egbert, said "It's a logical combination. We both have local coordinators all over the globe. Working together lets us combine our resources so that neither of us reinvents the wheel. Both of our primary goals are to help the positive parts of our spirituality come out in the light where others can see them. Whether you're creating Goddess Art, or giving canned goods to a food bank, you're seeing the entire span of all that is positive about our spiritual journeys."

Goddess 2000 Project Director Abby Willowroot adds "We are very pleased to be working with PPD in sharing information and building community. It is this type of cross-tradition cooperation that is

Making the Pagan Community healthy and strong." The goal of the G2000 Project is to encourage the creation of sacred imagery by artists and non-artists alike.

For more information, please contact the Goddess 2000 Project's website www. goddess2000.org, or contact the International Pagan Pride's website www. paganpride. org or at 317.916.9115.

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IPCPR Says Louisiana Legislature Puts State Businesses at Risk

IPCPR Says Louisiana Legislature Puts State Businesses at Risk

Nearly 1,200 bills have been filed for debate during the current legislative session in Louisiana. Of these, the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association is watching three it believes will negatively impact state businesses, including scores of conventions as well as hundreds of small businesses and more than a million residents throughout the state who smoke.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana (PRWEB) April 30, 2009

Nearly 1,200 bills have been filed for debate during the current legislative session in Louisiana. Of these, the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association is watching three it believes will negatively impact state businesses, including scores of conventions as well as hundreds of small businesses and more than a million residents throughout the state who smoke.

House Bill 75 proposes to raise the current 20 percent excise tax on non-cigarette products to 30 percent. Two other bills seek to tighten the state's existing anti-smoking law. House Bill 844 and Senate Bill 186 are aimed at banning smoking in any restaurant or bar.

"The IPCPR convention is scheduled for August, 2009 in New Orleans. More than 5,000 participants will attend and they will spend a lot of money in restaurants and bars. We won't be doing nearly that much if the proposed bans are enacted, and we are not likely to return in 2010 or beyond if that were the case. And we are just one convention. Scores of other conventions whose organizations are considering New Orleans and other cities in Louisiana will also likely opt to hold their meetings in more tobacco-friendly locales," said Chris McCalla, legislative director of the IPCPR.

McCalla believes jobs will be lost, businesses will be put at risk, and many conventions will stage their events elsewhere if any of these bills are adopted. The IPCPR represents more than 2,000 tobacco retailers and manufacturers of premium, hand-made cigars, most of whom are mom-and-pop small business owners who generate local employment, state and federal sales and other tax revenues.

"Increasing the taxes on a legal product in order to raise more money for state coffers and then banning its use in more locations will result in price increases and lower use of the product which means lower tax revenues for the state. Also, lower sales mean less business which means fewer jobs," according to McCalla.

Legislated smoking bans are unnecessary McCalla believes because business owners should be able to choose whether or not to allow smoking in their establishments while their customers and employees can choose which establishments they wish to patronize or work in.

"Besides, air quality levels in restaurants and bars that allow smoking have been proven absolutely safe by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. At the same time, those levels of secondhand smoke are well within the safe air quality standards established by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration - OSHA - for such establishments," he added.

Contact:
Tony Tortorici
678-493-0313

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