The Evil Weed
No Smoking sign
January 21, 1908: NYC passes the Sullivan Ordinance only to have the measure vetoed by the mayor. The Sullivan Ordinance made it illegal for women to smoke in public. In 1905, the New York Times ran an editorial item against an Indiana proposition to ban smoking, calling it “fussy legislation” and “as scandalous an interference as can be conceived with the constitutional freedoms.”
Controlling smoking seems to have been a major undertaking for a long time now. Lucy Page Gaston was an ardent founder of the Anti-Cigarette League of America which she established in 1910 after almost twenty years of campaigning against the evil habit. Her campaign to ban smoking produced many laws, the Sullivan Ordinance being just one of them.
To point out how effective it is to try to ban a substance that is already legal in a country, it is noted that the year Gaston founded her League 4.4 billion cigarettes were consumed. The year she died, 73 billion were sold. Today, some states have statewide bans on smoking in public places, some states have no bans, and in the middle are states with large cities with banning laws in place. In Washington, DC it is illegal to smoke in government buildings – except in Congress.
It isn’t just in the US where cigarettes have come under fire. There are national bans in a variety of countries ranging from Albania to Zambia. Some countries have strong national bans at all public indoor places, some have exceptions to their rules. Some countries ban smoking in public places except for entertainment venues and restaurants. Some have weaker enforcement of smoking bans but have them in place. Some countries, such as the US, have no national bans, but rely on regional bans to control smoking. Some countries have patchy legislation and even sketchier enforcement and some countries have no banning at all.
“For the first time in history, sex is more dangerous than the cigarette afterward.” – Jay Leno
“Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics.” – unknown
“They threaten me with lung cancer, and still I smoke and smoke. If they’d only threaten me with hard work, I might stop.” – Mignon McLaughlin
Oscar Wilde: ‘Do you mind if I smoke?’
Sarah Bernhardt: ‘I don’t care if you burn’
Also on this day, in 1976 the Concorde began service.
[...] on this day: The Evil Weed – In 1908, the Sullivan Ordinance, an early smoking ban, was passed and vetoed. Concorde – [...]