my boss is an idiot..

[Skywatcher]

*Originally posted by Rilchiam *
**Jeff, I can’t access that site. What’s the gist of it? **

It links to a MS Word file.

IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS
JUVENILE DIVISION
LAKE COUNTY, OHIO
Case No. 97-PR-755

IN RE JULIE ANNE, A MINOR CHILD.

							Decided August 27, 2002

SYLLABUS OF THE COURT
1. Secondhand smoke is carcinogenic to children.
2. Secondhand smoking kills about the same number of Americans each year as died in the Vietnam War.
3. Every independent authoritative scientific body that has examined the evidence has concluded that secondhand smoking causes diseases affecting children.
4. Secondhand smoke is a real and substantial threat to child health, causing a wide variety of adverse health effects in children.
5. Almost half of the world’s children regularly breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke, particularly at home.
6. The vast majority of children exposed to tobacco smoke do not chose to be exposed. The major source of exposure to tobacco smoke for young children is smoking by parents and other household members.
7. The involuntary nature of children’s exposure to secondhand smoke crystallizes the harm as egregious.
8. There is a strong link between parental smoking and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, with typical studies finding a two- to threefold increase in risk among children of smokers. It is reported that three times as many infants die of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome caused by maternal smoking as are killed as a result of homicide or child abuse.
9. Parental smoking is a key factor in children becoming active smokers after involuntarily being passive smokers, and active smoking by children not only is a serious health risk but also is a risk factor for substance and drug abuse.
10. For at least a century and a half, the “best interests of the child” standard has been the polestar for Ohio courts in determining matters involving children.
11. A family court that fails to issue court orders restraining persons from smoking in the presence of children under its jurisdiction is failing the children whom the law has entrusted to its care.
12. Courts will take judicial notice of the superabundance of scientific evidence that demonstrates secondhand smoke is harmful to children, giving rise to a duty upon family courts to take action to reduce children’s involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke.

Judge William F. Chinnock used this logic to decree that the child’s parents cannot smoke in her presence.