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FROM MARLIN 8 MRGGIE EHERT FRX ND. 808 329 8445 Jun. 22 2003 10:17PM P1
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Smoking ban claims its first Ilfe
By GEORC3E QORDON in New York
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A NIGHTCLUB bouncer has become the first casualty of New Yorlfs centroversial ban on
smoking in public places altar he was stabbed io tleath for asking two brothers to stub out
their cigarettes.
The murder happened two weeks into the ban, which was intended by the mayor Michael
Bloomberg as a health protection measure.
A fight broke out when Dana Blake, 32, tried to escort the two smokers out of the Guem~ca
nightspot in Lower Manhattan.
Atone stage, witnesses said, a woman jumped on his back. Then he was stabbed,
severing an artery.
Mr Blalw died in hospital 12 hours later. His brother Anthony Blake, a church minister, said
yeaterdev. ^Is anyone's life worth a cigarette? I'm very bitter. This was a senseless murdw
because of this stupid cigarette law "
The two brothers ran off following the incident in the early hours of Sunday. But they were
arrested and charged with criminal posses3ion of a weapon and realadng avast
Police are still trying to ascertain who stabbed Mr Blake.
The national war on smoking began in California but has swept across the country.
While some states antl numerous small towns were quick to follow suit, many major cities
shied away from the idea, fearing a public backlash and a loss of revenue from thousands
of bars and restaurants.
The law bauetl by Mr Bloomberg bans smoking in all bare, restaurants end clubs on the
grounds that "secondhand smoke" damages employees' health. The antl-smoking lobby
saw New York as pivotal to the fight for clean air.
"This is the Vendsetter. It will have a domino effect." said one campaigner. "If it workc here
it will work anywhere."
The first two weeks of the ban have seen examples of outright defiance and some
boycotts.
Many ecrahlishments Gaim business i3 suftertng.
There are 13,000 bar and restaurant businesses in New York and an estimated 1.3 million Comm. No. ~ • 1
smokers. No one is quite sure how many of them flock to drinking and eating Ref. To:
establishments but the mayor's gamble is that it coultl In tad result In higher spending. -
R~f. Uate
Glick h®r~ tq se~us your fet~a~k
http://www.dailytele>;raph.news.corn.au/printpage/0,5942,6288948,OO.himl 6/22/2003