Tobacco Documents Online

- Srneli. police'are on the sniff ,- CHARLES LAURENCE • • p ERFUME is next in It was the evidence, even if the ever-zealous quest it was thinnish, that second- for the perfect Amer- hand smoke could rnin the ica. There are clear and health of non-smokers that alarming signs of a scent- gave the anti-smokers the control movement rooted in weapon they needed for the the neo-Puritan culture that final push to smoke-free has given us smoking bans public areas. The anti- and codes of sexual correct- scenters are at this moment ness. It seems, in fact, to be busy compiling medical evi- ' an interesting combination dence, and assorted statis- of both. • tics, of the terrors of per- It is already rare in New fume to the innocent noses York to catch that passing of the hyper-allergic and the whiff that can so deliciously sufferers of "multiple chem- •distract even the most icalsensitivities": •''• • 4focused" of competitive It'cannot be long before males into a moment of idle the tables in New York res- musing on the sensual possi- 'taurants vacated by smok- bilities of life. -' • ' ers, soon to be banned alto- That something is missing 'gether, will be filled,' by 'from the air can be brought local order, by perfume home when the exception wearers. "Table for two, 'proves the rule. The other please, perfume section..." day, a musky scent as heavy A notable -victory was as mist stepped into the scored at,the New Yorker office lift, triggering a posi- magazine. The first revamp tively Proustian romp issue under the British edi- through memories of adoles- tor Tina Brown contained cent longings. those smelly-page perfume I followed my nose to a ads. There was much com- stout, elderly woman bun- ment- from' traditionalists, dled into thick furs from who preferred perfume on real animals, a woman who their women rather than had clearly refnsed to _their-prose, *but•the anti- repent from all that was scenters went further. They considered worthy and complained-that the maga- ailuring back in the 1930s. I• zine was now off-limits to can't remember ever catch- the chemically sensitive, ing such an extrovert olfac- and the management caved tory aura from a younger in.~ How do' those hyper- American woman. Proust allergic California belles I aside, a perfume in New cope with Pogue? ' York triggers automatic - If health -is the excuse, thoughts of Paris. pleasure is the real cause. But Americans must be Perfume positively stinks of doing something with per- the sort of ungainful, deca- fumes, for the -industry dent activity for which the reports record sales of $4•8 neo-Puritans are maintain- billion last year.- This is - ing wary watch. Richard wickedness to the stalwarts Klein, a professor of French of the Human Ecology •at • Cornell University and Action League. They are author of the rebellious Clg- amongthepioneersofscent- arettes Are Sublime, free America, declaring: plunged to the heart of the "Perfume is going to be the ' new scent wars with a tobacco - smoke of recent article for the New tomorrow." Republic magazine. Their cause may not prove •"In American culture, vain. The first ban is already descended from the Puri- in place, and, as usual, the tans, all universal sources of laboratory of social pro- pleasure are eventually me- gress is the campus. The dicalised, then politicised University of Minnesota is and finally policed - if not introducing a progressive prohibited aitogether. wit- "scent-free policy" that ness alcohol, tobacco, eanna- instructs students and staff bis, fat, pornography, mas- to avoid wearing anything turbation," he wrote. "Iake smelly in certain public • perfume, more and more areas, • including cafeterias considered to be a drug, and, and lecture theatres, where like all drugs, both vener- it may offend those who suf- : ated as medicine • and fer from "multiple chemical despised as poison." • • sensitivities". - . In the America of godly This offers the clear evi- • cleanliness, he noted, "the dence of a connection to sweet smell of success has no tobacco-style health issues. smell".