Tobacco Documents Online

10 S L GEORGE VECSEY/Sports of The Times THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, APRIL i:, l--v; BacktalFk This Public Servant Isn't BlowSmoke T H IS is how far we've come, babies: It was only a decade ago that fans attending a sports event had to conclude their evening with a personal defumiganon. Every item of cloth- ing had to be either dumped in a washing machine or stuffed in an airtight sack to be delivered to the cleaners. Next came a long and deliberate shower, scrub- bing all the smoke from the body, particularly stinging eyelids. Then came the hot tea for the sore throat. As you put your sanitized head on the pil- low, you tried to think about Doctor J's dunk or Bossy's goal. Instead, you thought about your lungs, your poor miserable lungs, clogged by the smoke of strangers. That's changed now. And this is how much it has changed. Late in a game at Boston Garden, the Celtics ahead by a comfortable margin, a man in a loud sports jacket takes out a cigar and prepares :o light u. The fan near him is well within his rights to say, " • Excuse me, sir, but if you light that up, I shall be forced to notify the authorities." This is true. Even Red Auerbach himself, the man who invented the in-your-face ritual of the vic- tory cigar, cannot puff one of those stinkers direct- ly under the banner where his imaginary number, No. 2, has been retired. Arnold cannot light up because Society, with a caprtal S, has decided that smoking in public are- nas is not only offensive but also unhealthy, even secondary smoke, that euphemism for bad air be- ing forced into unwilling tungs. There are still three places where smoking is al- ;owed, however. One is the corridor where people ouy food or stand in line for a rest room. Another is the locker room. One athlete can light up in the cu- brcle next to another athlete. The third smoke-filled room is the press box. Journalists apparently being a subhuman species, we fall below the health standards for the general public. In most arenas and stadiums, including New York, these facilities are ruled private clubs, which gives one colleague the right to smoke a few inches away from another colleague. Still, we have come a long way. Athletes used to be able to plug cigarettes, whether or not they smoked. Take the money and cough. But since 1971, nobody can plug cigarettes on television or radio. Plus, every pack of coffin nails carries a warning from the Surgeon General. This season, baseball has even decreed that smokeless tobacco will be banned in four low mi- nor leagues, meaning that 18-year-old players and grizzled old coaches alike cannot jeopardize their lips and tongues with potential carcinogens on company time, also setting a bad (to say nothing of disgusting) example for the public. But the tobacco companies are not foolish. Cal- lous, sly, mendacious, avaricious, dangerous, con- temptuous, contemptible, yes. But not foolish. In-. stead of paying designated athletes to plug their Larry C Morr,s: The %ew 7br. Gabriela Sabatini in action at'a 1986 Virginia Slims tournament in New York. I r products, they went out and bought up entire sport- is the same defensive whine of officials trying to ~ ing events. sneak in pay-per-view television and hrgher acket ,. Until recently, we had the bizarre contradiction prices and public-supported mega-arenas. They ,~ of America's most prominent female athletes, Len- cut back on beer sales to make the ball parks saf- nis players, performing in front of giant advertise- er, a small gesture, perhaps. They can learn to lrve ~ ments extolling a product that I vaguely recall be- without tobacco sponsorship. ~ ing named Emphysema Slims. What a mixed mes- Many public appointees, particularly recent ser ~ sage: Be healthy. Be skillful. Be proud. Damage retaries of the Interior, behave like foxes guarding your lungs. Damage your neighbor's tungs .- the henhouse. But the former Surgeon General, C. ; Eventually, that tobacco product was sub- Everett Koop, and Dr. Sullivan, have been twapub• merged within the larger corporate identity, but . lic servants willing to connect corporate adverus- tobacco advertising continues to pour big bucks - ing and sports adulation and public heakh. . into sports: S5l)d million, according to Dr. Alan 8lum, a physician who monitors the smoking in- Think of how far we've come: You can take a do- i dustry. mestic flight and not be assaulted by smoke. In ; Last week, Health and Human Services Secre- many enlightened places, you can demand that a tary Louis it!. Sullivan proposed that fans shun all restaurant provide a no-smoking room. Some ad- '' _ events backed by tobacco companies. This could dicted parents are learning not to smoke in the I include ball parks with massive cigarette adver- presence of children. Many work places are free of ( tisements. „ smoke. But sappy, hero-worshipping, make-a- I buck, don't-think-twice sports still takes mone}• from, polluters Spprts`executives will ar•gue that KingTobacco ' Some day we'll laugh about it. The sooner the helps pay the.high salaries of the athlete5, buCthat better... ~ ~ CR ~ 00 li". CR -12