Tobacco Documents Online

r.=, . How to Stop Smoking Legislation, The Case for the Fox in the Chicken Coop, Death and Darkness in Arkansas, and Other Matters. BY DANIEL SELIGMAN Smoke Screens  In~ the ideal world that we keep recom= mending, decisions about who could smoke in offices and restaurants and aboard aircraft would be left! entirely to business. Yes they would. Decisions about whether to segre- , gat'e smokers, to ban~ cigars, to give veto rights to nonsmokers, to provide guaranteed smokeplaces for addicts, and all similar is- sues would be left to market forces, which would instantly sort out the multiplying mor- al dilemmas now being massively mishandled in the public sector. Yes, friends, it is really quite simple. There was no need for the Civil Aeronautics Board to get itself allitangled up will be in the company's interest to provide deciding whether to ban all smoking, or only them. If valuable workers differ in their pref- cigar and pipe smoking, on planes with 30 erences nicotinewise, the employer will fig- seats or less, or 60 seats or less, or some ure out what trade-offs work best for the other number. (Il_ecent ruling: no cigars or company as a whole, and these are guaran- pipes anywhere;,no cigarettes on planes with teed to make more sense than any sweeping 30 seats or less.) Nor did the Sani Francisco city-wide rule. Among the nonsensical ques- Board of Supervisors have to mollify the tions agitating Bay Area employers, accord- antifumosity forces by passing a sappy city ing to the Christian Science Monitor: What is ordinance under which nonsmokers sudden- a brokerage firm supposed to do when indis- ly have the right! to banish smokers from pensable employees keep taking breaks be- each each and' every office occupied by the party cause they can't smoke on the trading floor, of the first' part, which raises the interesting and does the firm really have to install the question of'what happens when this party de- additional terminals that would be associated cides he has a right to prevent his immediate with smoker segregation? Of course, these superior from smoking, and the collat'erali problems become much simpler when they . question of what court we all end up in when,; feature expendable employees, who are ad- the aforesaid hierarch decides that a certaini , vised not to express their preferences too party is not as useful to the firm as previous- forcefully, at least not under capitalism. `" 1y postulated. As we were saying, these con tentious issues need not detain our public Solomonic Settlement servants because the capitalist system would' t automatically provide justice for all if, only of the Fortn~ght 'they left it alone.  A Veterans Administration hospital em- Look. If there is a demand for zero-smoke ployee lost a bid for a supervisory promotion to flights of any duration, market forces will sat', a colleague who was willingly having an af- isfy them. Yes they will. They are also capa- fair with their boss. This represents unlawful ble of accommodating passengers who like sex bias and, indirectly, sexual harassment, a to light up a meerschaum after dinner, or for federal judge in Delaware ruled ... that matter before breakfast. If the nieer- To settle the woman s case ... the VA pro- schaum market' is large enough, some airline moted her to a different, higher paying job; will adopt a strategy of selling to it, and the gave her $7,500, and offered extra training. antismokers will fly other airlines, whose ,-Fromi a news report commercials will thenceforth emphasize the in the Wall Street journal. all airlines offer the same air?' ;,  Pavlovianally conditioned as he is to react Why shoul& all employers? If valuable negatively to the average New York Times workers want jobs in smoke-free zones, it declaration~ about OSHA, your correspon- RssenecHAssocuATeDavidKirkpatnck ; dent is arguably not' the most objective ob- quintessential breathability of the in-flight oxygen instead of the pilot's lovable predilec- Injurygate tion for saluting 4-year-old boys. Why should Only in America (cont'd)  Radical attorney 'c William Kunstlergot, ; a chilly reception -,~ J yesterday from police at the East2lst St. stationhouse.. . = Kunstler, invited to raise th'eir, . ' consciousnessaspa rt, :: ofa weekly training session designed togtive ; cops insight into ~ ~' political and social issues, . . . called ' all ` white people"racist. .. ~; 'Attendance during his speech was »mandatory, and Kunstler's captive audience did not applaud him. _ -From an article in the New York Post. APRiL 16, 1984 FORTUNE 147