Something pretty momentous happened this week in New Jersey and I don’t think a lot of people truly appreciate the significance of it all. Sure, plenty of people are celebrating the passage in Trenton of a ban on smoking in public places in New Jersey, and rightly so. This is a huge victory for public health, and the fact that the casino industry lobbied for and won an exemption tells you everything you need to know about that industry's morals. (It also leaves an opening for a last-ditch effort to stop the legislation, but that's unlikely to get anywhere.)
But I can remember when the idea of getting people to stop smoking in your own house, let alone in bars and restaurants, seemed hopelessly utopian and wooly-minded. That we have been able to reach this point is a victory on the scale of Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Bigger, even — it only took four years to get Lee to hand over his sword, but it took over five decades to get smokers to take their coffin nails outside. This snowballing public measure gives us something to feel good about. It also allows us to close the file drawer on what may have been the greatest corporate crime of the 20th century — a period when atrocities in the name of good business and the bottom line were not exactly hard to find.
As this fine American Heritage article from 1992 makes clear, lung cancer was such a vanishingly rare phenomenon in the early 20th century that when a St. Louis man was diagnosed with the illness in 1919, physicians and medical students flocked to his bedside and peered down at the autopsy following his death, certain that they would never get another chance to see this exotic illness. Two decades later, lung cancer was on its way to becoming one of America’s top killers, thanks to the huge increase in cigarette smoking. The nicotine monkey was placed on America's back during World War I, when James Buchanan Duke, who had come up with a way to mass-produce cigarettes, hit on the same marketing principle that still keeps drug pushers in business:
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Nancy
I don't know Carton & Rossi, but James B. Duke & everyone else ever affiliated with the Tobacco Industry should fry in hell forever, along with the other drug pushers who don't care who they kill as long as they can line their pockets - and lie about it, to add insult to injury.
2 - sal m
i hate smoking and i think anyone who engages in it is just plain stupid, especially younger smokers, as there is no doubt that smoking diminishes quality of life. if you've started smoking in the past 30 years you're just plain dumb.
however, i think that this movement to ban smoking in public places is a bit hypocritical, especially on behalf of the politicians who push for it.
if our politicians - and the public health advocates that they attract - were so concerned with smoking as a public heath issue they would act to have tobacco classified as unsafe for human consumption and ban tobacco and outright.
however, this will never happen as politicians love the income stream provided by the taxes that are levied on tobacco products. this income stream floods into the state coffers and allows states to pay for a lot of their programs.
as a matter of fact a lot of people -not just politicians - would shit the proverbial brick if the money from tobacco taxes finally stopped coming in, and if jobs generated by the tobacco industry disappeared.
and i bet if a tobacco company had the balls to stop selling tobacco in a state like NJ, the politicians would lose their minds due to the lost tax revenues.
taking the money while people kill themselves is hypocritical.
3 - Nancy
You're totally correct on that!
4 - zingzing
i live in seattle, where a smoking ban became law about a month ago. i don't mind not smoking in the bar, but we've got a 25 ft law attached. that's just greedy. if you go out to a bar, you're already doing some nasty things to your body. if you stand outside in the rain (it's been raining for 25 days in a row now), you're doing double... triple damage. i hope all the smokers get colds, get real sick because they can't stop coughing, and get all the non-smokers sick right with them.
other than that, i don't think that the state has the right to be my mother. fuck that. it's just dumb.
5 - Andy Marsh
might be a victory for public health...but it's another monster defeat for the little guy...how can the govt come into my business and tell me how to run it? I guess if they can take your property they can tell you how to run your own business...
6 - Mark Saleski
how can the govt come into my business and tell me how to run it?
it's called "public safety".
7 - Andy Marsh
You're public...I'm private...you don't wanna come in? Don't!
8 - Mark Saleski
i'm talking about the people who work there.
or can there be no safety considerations for workers?
cripes, we have this stupid argument ever damn time somebody else bans smoking.
it's funny.
9 - zingzing
"cripes, we have this stupid argument ever damn time somebody else bans smoking."
of course we do. i say that the state should allow smoking in "smoking establishments." a place where it is known that smoking will be going on, and that if you don't want to breathe smoke, then you don't come in. if you don't want to own such a business, you don't own it. if you don't want to work at such a business, you don't work there.
the outright banning of smoking is is is stepping on the rights of smokers to do something totally legal in a public place.
i'm willing to make consessions to non-smokers... kind of like opening a door for a woman... but, non-smokers need to make consessions to smokers. i mean, come on. basically, you're saying: HEY YOU CAN'T SMOKE HERE, THERE'S A ROOF ON IT. IF THERE'S A ROOF, YOU CAN'T SMOKE HERE. SEE THAT? THAT'S A ROOF. CAN'T SMOKE HERE.
fuck off. we give you the entire goddamn state. give us a couple of places around town to go out, but not freeze to death in the rain, smoking a waterlogged peice of shit that you already tax the fuck out of us for. fuck. off.
10 - Andy Marsh
what zingzing said!
11 - Nancy
But Zing, smoking doesn't affect only you, even if you smoke outside & avoid inflicting second-hand smoke on others. When you start developing lung/breathing syndromes, cancer, or other health issues because you can't give up cigarettes, all the rest of us have to take up the slack for you at work when you're out getting chemotherapy, as well as paying extra in taxes and insurance to foot the bill for your very expensive medical care under Medicare or whatever insurance co. you have if you have one. Not to mention extra costs to the rest of the public to support your kids & spouse when you die, should they be so unfortunate as to need public assistance, as is increasingly the case. In addition, research has recently shown that even when children of smokers are not directly exposed to second hand smoke, but rather are exposed to it in the womb before birth, they still have a higher rate of developmental problems, both before & after birth, from cigarette chemicals ingested by the smoking parents & passed on in the egg or sperm. And then there's the matter of another type of public safety: the preponderance of all fires in the US are started by smokers carelessly tossing cigarette butts. Should you be inclined to deny this, next time you are stopped at a traffic light check out the litter of ciggie butts for yards in every direction by the side of the road. Frankly, smokers are slobs. They also pitch their still lit butts out the windows of their moving cars - and more than once I've had one stupidly tossed by some inconsiderate ass come flying in my window onto my car seat or myself, endangering me and other drivers. Finally, smokers can't seem to sense it, but - smokers stink. You stink. Your breath stinks. Your hair & clothes stink. It sinks into your very flesh. You might not be able to smell it, but everyone else can, & it has the same effect as being next to someone who never bathes.
So it's not just you, and never will be, unless you take up residence in the Gobi & foreswear all social contact or governmental/medical assistance.
12 - Andy Marsh
but Nancy...all my friends smoke too...so...if I stop smoking...I'll start smelling them...it wouldn't be pretty...
If I die before my kids and spouse you have to support them anyway...I'm retired navy...your tax dollars pay my retirement check every month...your tax dollars specifically...I get this piece of paper that tells me whos tax dollars they are...and they keep getting it after I die...I use the ashtray in my car...I can't be held responisble for the inconsiderate acts of others...
those extra taxes...they're the ones on cigarettes...we already pay 'em...we...the smokers.
13 - zingzing
do you own a gun? drive a car (oh, you do)? eat fast food? drink? not give to charities? talk on a cell phone while driving your car, eating fast food, speeding, gun in your lap, having had a few drinks and not having given to charity?
do you recycle? ever taken a drug? do you take pain killers and drive?
there are a lot of things that humans do and don't do that affect everyone around them. smoking is one of those things, i'll admit it. but! it's legal and THE STATE IS NOT MY MOTHER. it's not that i don't care about the things you talk about... maybe one day, i will quit smoking because of it. maybe i won't be able to.
i'll make you a deal: if SUV's, guns and fast food are banned, you can take my cigarettes away.
i just wouldn't want to be around me for a couple of weeks if i were you. just a warning.
oh, and i don't stink. i smell real nice. that's what the ladies say. i believe it when ladies say nice things about me.
14 - Nancy
Actually, ref: the re-acquisition of your sense of smell after cessation of smoking, yes. Most people do regain it & are appalled at how other smokers stink, & the thought that until recently that's how they smelled, too.
But Zing & Andy, it has more to do with that you are good people; why would you want to deprive yourselves of health & life & us of the pleasure of reading your comments & learning your thoughts on stuff like your nifty Gnostics thread, just to enrich a bunch of lousy skanks like the Tobacco industry?
15 - Andy Marsh
probably for the same reason I enrich that bunch down in Lynchburg, KY...I just enjoy somethings...tell ya what...if they legalize pot, I'll quit smoking cigarettes...promise!
16 - Nancy
Don't have a gun, don't take drugs or prescriptions while driving, refuse to use a cell phone while driving, & don't eat fast food or drink & drive. Even gave up road rage for lent last year, & it worked. I expect to be canonized any day now ;T
17 - Andy Marsh
well...I'l quit smoking cigarettes made with tobacco.
18 - Nancy
Uhh...I'm clueless: what's down in Lynchburg, KY?
19 - Andy Marsh
a nor'easter giving up road rage? musta been tough!
20 - Nancy
Anyway, people who can argue/write well like you two need to stay with us - preferably in excellent health.
21 - Nancy
Oooo...thank you! Yes, it was. But'cha know, just from giving up that I've calmed down & my BP went down, too, by almost 40 pts.
22 - tommyd
People, smoking bans are a government Trojan Horse...smoking is the weakest point of entry for the Totalitarians in our government to sneak in under the guise of "protecting the public" only to further erode more rights. I'm telling you the government doesn't give a shit about cigarettes or second hand smoke or anything but only TO TELL YOU WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU BECAUSE THEY KNOW BETTER THAN YOU.
See, non-smokers, I'm gonna laugh in your face when the day comes that the Patriot Act is knocking at your door to question you on the strength of your "patriotism" and how much love you show towards the regime. It's coming.
Fuck going to bars where you can't smoke. Boycott the bitches. Have a party at your house, invite the neighbors and smoke anything you want.
Pussified Amerika, land of freedumb.
23 - Andy Marsh
thank you for the compliment...I'm not going anywhere...I live my hell on earth...I have daughters...besides...I now seek the Knowing of the All...who knows where that will lead!
24 - Mark Saleski
hey, i'm from the northeast and i gave up road rage too. let's face it, there are just so many idiot drivers out there, you 're just gonna make yourself crazy for no reason at all.
i just get used to being cut off, tailgated, etc.
25 - sal m
i didn't make this clear, but i should have...and i agree with zing zing...
for as much as i dislike smoking if people want to do it - until smoking is illegal which will be never - let them. just don't go suing the tobacco companies or blame joe camel for your addiction.
and if business owners want the patronage of smokers at the risk of losing non-smokers, that's their decision to make.
if you hate smokers and are a bartender of waiter/waitress then either change professions or find a place that is smoke free. a bartender who can't stand smoke is like a doctor who can't stand to see sick people.
if consumers don't want to go to a smoking place, then don't. weigh the relative merits of the place with the relative risks of second hand smoke.
i can't stand non-smokers who go to a place and then bitch at the smokers...stay home or go someplace else.
i can understand not allowing smoking among the general population in the workplace but i don't think a smoke-free restaurant or bar is one of the inalienable rights the founders had in mind back in the day.