Tobacco Documents Online

/U LEGAL ISSUES n 7,1- ~ .~---~`~~-- • ~ V ~~o ke-eL . - ~~ ' it iefiht lt Thiss no anssu o rgs.s an issue of health and courtesy. lf one person doesn't want you r. to smoke, you shouldn't smoke.' By KEITH SCHNEIDER'• Stat( Reporter Thursday did It. Thursday Feb. 28 - the day Lehan 1. Marcus decided he'd suf- fered his last headaches; wiped away the last tear from his watering eyes; washed his ]ast shirt which smelled as if it had hung In a bar all day; inhaled his last • . breath from the cloud of cigarette smoke Smokmg" lt says G , , , ._ loitering in translucent•colum ns about his Marcus says the smoking in the repair ' He desk.d had it• It was time ta speak up. ,• - service bureau bothered him from the first 3_ Until that day, Marcus was simply an _ day he started working for Southern Bell: 1~' other emolovee at out ern eIl's'Pepper- 1. + ' ' q hen you t want to kick , re new you don am Work Center in North Charleston - a, too much. But every day I would leave• ' s ou re atrevearo es , - -- desk • there and feel depressed. The smoke really technician working alongside 35 other em- made me sick." ployees in the center's windowless repair Then came Thursday. "The air condi- fervice bureau. tioner never worked properly in the room• Now Marcus knows he Is cast in two That day it wasn't working at all. I wasn't more roles - hero and villain - as he the only one getting sick. There were leads the stron est challen e mount others. I sat at my desk and breathed that a atn g, q rscrulralioar.ing stuff all day and I decided something had smoking employees to practice their habit '• to be done." If the case is ~e5' '• The foilowing Monday Marcus returned settle7c'4r'court,''court, where it to.work armed with a petition' "We the ap Parc r" hP . Hg y a^a~ e.und•r<tg~ reo,~est hat a no smokina state~Ct:Aationai Hea_lth and Safetystat- ru(e be tuted_in_the_r.epair_~rrise utes bv including smo_ke ~ a toxic sub bureau. dangerous ~o~he stance that shoul be banned from the . health of the smoker... re-breathed smoke s'or m y~gTve non-smoTctog can aggrava e ef- afi lth conditions of the non- .propor.ents the legal foothold they need to V smokers ... It Increases the carbon manox- enact a statewide Clean Indoor Air Act - ide content of the work place and may CHARLESTON, S. C. NEWS & COURIER D. 66,4G0 - S. 96,741 CNARLESTON METROPOLITAN AtEA ;v 10 '~ 3r; prohibiting smoking in public places. At' a~ headachesanddecreasedproductiv- stake: the health of South Carolinians and .. Ity •- with the •medical knowledge of the ~ the future of the state's S2C0 million dollar.' effects of smoking on smokers and non- tobacco crop. t • smokers It is in the company's best Inter- A smoker for most of his adult life. est to discourage it In the work area." ~arcus says he quit before moving from lyfarcussigned first, (ollowedby?0other feA York to South Carolina three years pmpta~s b7c(p3m `wo. supet ^+1s9ts• ago. "I quit because it was hurting my -wer e~f the next four months, health." he says. "But tt doesn't really the petition circulated throughout the corn- matter whether I quit or not. I breathe so pany -(rom Marcus' lirst•level supervi- much smoke at work, it's like I'm sitting in - sor all the way to Atlanta and Southern i giant ashtray." Bell president L•E. Nast- The repair service bureau at Pepper- By June, the company bad formulated dam Work Center is a large room, scarred ' its response. ' They offered to segregate 'iy the ei(ects of tobacco. There are brown ' - marks on the orange carpet where hot ~shes burned until spent. Unwatchfd butts -'. (See Page 4-E, Column 0 'It's just harassment as far as i'm concerned. If they re going to out/aw tobacco, they should out- law liquor ~oo. That's more of- fensive to me.' ~ .melted large holes in plastic sheets pro- tecting the tops of test desks. Gray ash dusts computer cards held upright in cir• cular files. The room smells of smoke. There is an irony to this room too. At one ,end is a door opening into a smaller room ~e ~ ~ containing sophisticated switching equip- ment piled high with miles of electric A There is a stgn posted there "No cable I ,

C Just 10 years ago a non•smoker asking a smoker to stop puffing in public would have caused a reaction like this: "Are you kidding? Beat It." Embarrassed, the non-smoker would have retreated to the nearest open window. Not anymore. Not since research• ers compiled reams of medical evi- dence linking smoking to a host of killers: cancer, emphysema, stroke, heart disease. Statistics released by • the National Interagency Council on Smoking and Health say 350.000 Americans die prematurely from the effects of smoking. The report says $8 billion in health care expenses is directly related to smoking. More than s15 billion is lost by industry through employees who smoke and are Involved in accidents, extended smokers from non-smokers." says Marcus, "but that wouldn't do any good because the room is set up for . different people In different jobs. They also tried to fix the air condi- ' tioner, but It still doesn't work some days." "We trted to work out a solution ' Says ames :a a vect, enera , mana ero~disfnution~$out ern -SeTi-~a~ ln _nlu_mh_ia_, "tS~O,I_ fered to move e~m loyees to different _,sections. T ll-C ctrculationin the room was'checke an it u_beTleiba envttqpmentyiists~ay it~tas to be, I don't know what else would be in order." io~n, the Communt- r smoker• It s my life and my lungs. cation Workers of i's I'll take my chances." LEIiAN J. ~ America, and was Until recenUy, the non-smoker had MARCUS lj:urned down, "I ~' no response except to say the smoke guess they're hurt his eyes. But In 1973 two re• caught in the middle," explains Mar- •, searchers from London's St• Bartho- ens. "The Union represents smokers ; i lomew's Hospital wrote a report and non-smokers." I saying non-smokers who breathe "I don't really buy the union's ' smoke from lit cigarettes and ex- reasoning either," says Brenda K- ' haled breath face the possibility of ' "Cookie" Robinette, 33, a test desk j, serious health hazards-The research technician who has never smoked. ; - says carbon monoxide levels in the "This is not an i•ssue of rights. It's ' blood of non-smokers are raised sig• an Issue of health and courtesy. If nificantly when in the presence of lit one person doesn't want you to ' cigarettes. Long-term chronic expo- su to m k tn ublic laces and re s o e smoke, you shouldn't smoke• I suffer from migraines and there is nothing worse for migraines than breathing cigarette smoke." "I guess the only thing we can do now," says Marcus. "is go to court." "If he takes us to court that's his right," says James lf. Leland Jr., division manager for Southern Bell's coastal division- and the man serv- ing as the company's spokesman on this Issue. "We've got 1,400 employ ees in the Lowcountry and a lot of' ~ them smoke. A lot of them don't smoke. But there are certain things we are not going to recognize as company pattcy. We are not going to recognize this minority of people who want to eliminate smoking for everybody. "Some of the people in there are smokers and they have rights too. I am a smoker myself. I just left a meeting with 15 people. I'd say a third of them smoke. We're not going to eliminate smoking' in there be- cause some don't like it- I'm sure some don't. But I smoked my pipe and let spirals go up to the ceiling anyway.'• "What's in or• ;- Illness or who work below their pro- der," answers ductive potential- ~`Marcus, '•is to All the bad news has caused the prohibit smoking smoker 'to listen. Last year, the in that room." He American Lung Association released :, and many other : a study which says 33 percent of --employees are , adult Americans smoke. That figure . the =dissatisfled with is•down from 42 percent in 1964 , ~ -.~the company's ?. year of the first Surgeon beneral's respon -Report on Smoking thatiinked ciga- ~y~ hel lfarcus • rette smoking with lung cancer. . .~ urned to his un• I "Wltat's tt7p probtem?" asks the : ~. i. p p the work place, says the report, may ; , result in "appreciable long-term ~ • negative health consequences." Other reports followed. The latest, . released In March by James R. / White and Dr. Herman F. Froeb, measures the effects of passive smoking by non-smokers chronically exposed to co-workers' cigarettes. pipes and cigar smoke. The re- searchers tested 2-100 middle-aged workers and concluded "chronic ex- posure to tobacco smoke in the work environment is deleterious to the non-smoker and significantly re- duces small airways function in the lungs." Reductions in small airways function, note the authors, often precedes such crippling diseases as emphysema. All of a sudden the non-smoker breathing the smoke of others in public places apparently has a rea- son to be worried. Yet. waving scien• tifle evidence in the face of a man who needs a cigarette is like trying to stop a charging tiger with a water pistol. Medical research had to be translated into law. Cd beginning of the transttion oc- curred in December 1976 in a small New Jersey courtroom. There, Don• na M. Shimp, a 44-year•old service representative with Yew Jersey Bell Telephone; hauled stacks of medical data, dozens of expert witnesses and the telephone company before Supe- rior Court Judge Philip A. Gruccio and convinced him her healLh w•as, being ruined by all the smoking at her work place - a phone company store in ;ttillville, N.J. Mrs. Shimp based her case on law common not only to New Jersey, but also to every state in the nation: Every employer must provide his employee with a safe place to work tree of hazardous and toxic materi• ais. Mrs. Shimp told Gruccio that in 15 years with the company she en- countered chronic heavy cigarette smoking at work which caused her nose to bleed, her eyes to tear, head• aches, nausea and stomach distress. . 14ost alarming though - her corneas were beginning to erode because of the smoke. Gruccio ruled the telephone com• pany must provide Mrs. Shimp with a smoke-free work environment• And in a written decision, Gruccio left no doubt that the health rights of the non-smoker prevail: - "There can be no doubt that the by-products of burning tobacco are toxic and dangerous to the heaith of the smoker and non-smoker. - "It is clearly the law that an employee has a right to work in a iafe envuronmenL An employer Is under ap affirmative duty to provide a work area that is free from unsafe conditions. - - "The evidence Is overwhelming and clear- Cigarette smoke contami- nates and pollutes the air, creating a health hazard not merely to the smoker but to all those around her who must rely upon the same air supply." The decision In Shimp vs. yew Jersey Bell Telephone lent new strength to groups seeking to estab- lish laws against smoking In public -places. To date. 32 states and the DLstrict of Columbia have passed legislation limiting smoking in en. closed public areas. In 1976. `tinne- sota enacted the most rigorous laws in the country against smoking In , public. Smoking is outlawed in all public buildings, theaters• corridors, elevators, buses and taxis. The law requires empioyers to se- gregate smokers and non-smokers in work places. Restaurants are re- quired to have a smoking and non• smoking section• Nebraska enacted a similar law last year. And New York's House of Representat ves re- centty voted to establish a Ciean Indoor Air Act. A contirtnation vote by Che Senate is expected soon.

. Ofore than 500 cdue2ies and munte- fpalitles have passed non-smoking legts:ation. Airlines are increasing (heir nd-smoking sections while the Civil Aeronautics Board is deciding whethEr to ban smoking on domestic nights altogether. Smoking Is al- lowed on interstate buses only in the last three rows. Thousands of restau- rants have added non-smoking sec• tlons. - Despite the nationwide movement, South Carolina has enacted little no smoking legislation. It's not that there wasn't Interest. In 1977, Beaufort County enacted the state's first Yo Smoking Ordinance to regulate smoking In pubilcowned or public-supported places. The ordi- ' nance limited smoking to designated areas and provided penalties for vio- lations. Smoking is prohibited in ele- vators, county council chambers, county courtrooms, county public li- ( braries, public meetings in public• supported facilities- public waiting rooms In public-supported facilities and in buses operating In the county. There are designated areas for smoking In most Beaufort County buildings. Violation of the ordinance may subject a person to 15 days In jail or a S50 fine. The three-yearold ordinance, says Gerhard Spieier, a Beaufort County staff inember, "has worked out very well. In the beginning some fun was made. But the signs have been ob- eyed on the whole." A month after Beaufort County passed the no smoking ordlnance. Dr. Gordon B. Stine, then a ChaHes- ton County councilman, introduced a nearly identical measure to county ; council. By 3tay, county council scrapped the proposed ordinance In favor of adapting a resolution to encourage regulating smoking In public buildings and public-support• ed buildings. The resolution was adopted. There are, however, no penalties for smoking In areas d marked with No Smoking signs. • Stine, now county council chalr- man, is still disappointed: "If It were up to me. there would be no smoking In public places, period. From a fire- safety angle, you're endangering many lives. From a health•safety angle, you are definitely endanger- ing your own life plus the person• like myself, who doesn't smoke. Later that year. In September, Sen. T. Dewey Wise fD-Charlestonl wrote the state's first Clean lndood Air Act based primarily on the Beau- fort ordinance. The bill was studied by the Senate Medical Affairs Com- mittee and released to the Senate floor where it died when the legisla- ture went home during the summer of 1978. Last. year. the bill was reintrod- uced into the House Sfedical Affairs Committee. It died there. Herman E. Allen, smoking In their rooms. .~nd In executlve director I rooms with more than one bed, the S h C hts f m-smoker are para- o th o- t uon ana ine uul a -«-s1, •.,1-~ ~~,~ ,--° - major supporter, ' are obeyed, "for the most part." it , the tobacco peo- Is still difticult to enforce the rules le have been suc- when a smoker becomes beligerent. ! p ~ *- cessful in killing •'There aren't any punitive penal- ; this bill." The rea- ~ son: South Caroli- ~• na's flue•cured tles," says ~IcLees. "If a smoker BRENDA K. ROBINETI'E tobacco crop an• Insists on smoking we can t prose• nually generates cute. We can suggest he stop. 1t an more than $200 etnpioyeecontinuestosmokewecan million for the do something about that." • state'seconorny. The issue of wheth- It's no simpler at any of the other er smoking should.be outlawed In area hospitals. St. Francis Xavier Hospital and the Veterans Adminis- ~ tration Medical Center have en= (See Page 12•E, Column 1)> forced stringent no-smoking + regulations for some time: - , In February, Roper Hospital : • : ~ .,,,~ ~ i _ ~ changed its smoking regulations to i~~ ~ match those at the Medical Universi- . tY Hospital. Elrewhere in the county, no-smok- Contfnued From Page 4 E public isyet another attack on their livelihood, say tobacco growers. In April, Carroll G. Tompson, ex- ecutive vice president of R.J. Rey nolds Tobacco Co', summed up his feelings before the annual meeting of the Pee Dee Totiacco Warehouse As- sociation: "Two issues are plaguing the tobacco industry. The taxation of our products and the health issue. Anti-smoking zealots are making smoking difficult and even embar- rassing for our customers." F. Frank Stephens, one of the larg- est tobacco~ growers in the Dillon area, says antt-smoking legislation. would be "discriminatory." "It's just harassment as far as I'm con- cerned." says Stephens. "If they're going to outlaw tobacco, they should outlaw liquor too. That's more offen- sive to me." Tobacco growers have effectively stalled passage of the Clean Indoor Air Act. "As far as the legislature is croncerned, the issue is dead," says Allen. "But we're going to put the bill in the hopper again next fall. I still think there is a lot of interest In the rigpts of nonsmokers." If Charleston County Is any Indica- tion, the interest is more than just passing. Despite the reluctance of state and county legislators to pass an act with penalties, many private businesses and health) facilities are creating smoking regulations. By far, the area's most rigorous no-smoking regWations are In force in Lowcountry hosoitals. At the Medical University Hospi- tal, executive administrator WUliam A. McLees says the hospital began enforcing its no-smoking policy in the summer of 1977. Smoking is not permitted by staff inembers• pa• tients or visitors in corridors, eleva- tors, stairways, clinic waiting rooms, nursing stations or any office where there is direct contact be- tween staff and patient. No tobacco producs are soid in the hospital.. i C ar ng ~ ot the ou •~}, lina Lung Associa- mount. Ing rules are less vigorous. Last year the Coastal branch of, the S.C. Lung Association polled Lowcountry res- taurants and discovered slightiy more than a dozen offer diners a choice between smoking and no- smoking sections. "There were many customers who were offended by cigarette smoke," explains Gary E. Gore, manager of the Piccadilly Cafeteria in Charles Towne Square. "Some people actually get sick when they smell smoke." • Small business proprietors are be- ginning to post No Smoking signs in their stores. "I posted my sign be- cause I'm pregnant and the smoke bothers me tremendously," says Vicki V. Wotfe; owner of Gold Crea- tlons In the City Market. "Whea customers comein with a cigarette I ask them to put it out. The men are nice -about it. The women can be ugly. One lady said. "Weil. see if I'll shop in here anymore. I said: "Lady. do I look hungry?" City of Charleston fire regulations prohibit smoking in movie theaters and in Gaillard Municipal Alidito- •rium except in designated areas. Also, smoking is not permitted an South Carolina Electric and Gas operated buses. That regtilatlan is particularly dif- ficult to enforce. "We have had two complaints ihis week from people who found the smoking obnoxious•'• says Jay Thomas Anderson, an SCE&G executive assistant. "It's very hard for operators to stop the bus and tell someone to get off be- cause he is smoking." In talking to those people who have taken active steps to regulate smok- ing in their business areas, one of the first things they mention is the help a statewide law would give. That is where Lehan Martvs and 20 other

. . ~-..~ • repair service bureau employees people feel it would be very hard on come in. them not to be able to smoke while With the help of Donna Shimp and working since they've been able to Environmental ImproJement Asso- all this time. ciates, a non-profit corporation Mrs. . "But whatever decision is made by Shimp formed to help people in NIar- the majority I will go with.. Maybe cus' position, Marcus will challenge If they did stop the smoking In here it " South Carolina's common law re- might do me a little good. I'm not garding employment safety. - stupid enough to say it's not injuring •' "I would be eatremeiy surprised it my health. I'm quite sure it is. It's a Southern Bell allows this case to dirty, nasty habit and it might be to reach court," says Mrs. Shimp. Wa advantage if it goes the other "The evidence is very clear. Second- Lehan Marcus Is convinced Ic wilL hand smoke is an occupational health Ee says he has no other choice. He hazard." likens passive smoking to long-term At Pepperdam, Marcus' col- homicide. "Someone who smokes in leagues who smoke aren't sure he public is pointing a gun at your heart will win. It's a difficult decision and , and lungs. It might not go off today a touchy subject because both sides or even in a year. But you know . have a right to the way they feel," breathing all that smoke isn't any says Mary Y. Cooch, repair clerk good for you. You also know it might and smoker for 37 years. "Some kill you." . . .'-~•

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