Greenwood Leflore Hospital announced last month that it will ban all tobacco use on its campus starting Jan. 1. The only surprise in that announcement is that such a ban wasn’t already in place.
When I started working in newspapers, people smoked in the newsroom, just like they did in virtually every other workplace in America. The floors were usually linoleum in those days instead of carpets. Some smoking journalists had bad aim; others just preferred to grind out their butts on the floor.
One old journalism stereotype was the grizzled writer sitting at his typewriter, pecking furiously at the keys while a cigarette dangled from his lips. I tried that a few times, but the smoke kept getting in my eyes.
In Jackson in the early 1990s, The Clarion-Ledger banned smoking in the newsroom. A former conference room became a smoking lounge. It quickly turned into the most disgusting place on earth. The air in the room always looked smoky, and the stench could bring tears to your eyes.
Later, smokers were exiled outside. A few years ago, all tobacco use was banned on Clarion-Ledger property. Most of the smokers now walk across the street to Jackson’s City Hall to light up. You can see them out there puffing away in daylight and dark and all but the most inclement weather.
I don’t know about your workplace, but the smoking ban caused a decline in productivity at The Clarion-Ledger. Some smokers took one break an hour. I didn’t miss the smell, so maybe it was a fair trade.
I just didn’t have the discipline to be a smoker. Keeping up with a lighter and cigarettes was too much responsibility.
Smoking seemed almost ubiquitous in the United States in the last century. Just watch one of those old movies, especially those from the 1940s. You will see Humphrey Bogart and the rest puffing away. They made smoking look pretty cool.
Later, cigarette commercials were all over television. I remember that Winston sponsored “The Beverly Hillbillies” and Gunsmoke,” while the NBC evening news was brought to you by Benson & Hedges.
Cigarette use in the United States peaked in the mid 1960s when around 40 percent of Americans were smoking. The government has spent the last 40-plus years trying to get Americans to stop smoking.
Along the way, it has stopped cigarette ads on TV, quit passing out free cigarettes in the military, forced Joe Camel into retirement and piled on the taxes. Many cities, including Greenwood, have banned smoking in public indoor places.
Today about 46 million adults, or one in five, still smoke. The government had hoped to drop the smoking rate to 12 percent by this year, a goal not only missed but that’s now been put off to 2020, the Associated Press reported.
Nicotine is stronger than the U.S. government, folks.
President Barack Obama has reportedly quit smoking.
“I have not seen or witnessed evidence of any smoking in probably nine months,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday when asked about Obama’s habit.
Then again, how many hours in a day does Gibbs really spend with the president?
Smoking “is not something that he’’s proud of. He knows that it’s not good for him,” Gibbs said of Obama. “... He doesn’t like children to know about it, obviously including his.”
Perhaps Thursday’s dire report from the surgeon general will make it easier for all smokers to quit. Smoking one cigarette — or inhaling someone else’s secondhand smoke — could be enough to block your arteries and trigger a heart attack, the report says
Lung cancer is what people usually fear from smoking, and yes, that can take years to strike. But the report says there’s no doubt that tobacco smoke begins poisoning immediately, causing cellular damage in nearly every organ.
“That one puff on that cigarette could be the one that causes your heart attack,” said Surgeon General Regina Benjamin.
Or the one that triggers someone else’s: “I advise people to try to avoid being around smoking any way that you can,” she said.
There is no safe level of secondhand smoke, the report concludes.
About 443,000 Americans die from tobacco-caused illnesses every year.
Smoking isn’t the only thing that’s bad for you, of course. Too much food, too much alcohol, too much stress and too little exercise are among the things that can make you sick, too.
But when you smoke, you’re not just harming yourself. Think about that the next time you light up.
• Contact Charles Corder at ccorder@gwcommonwealth.com.
