The Tobacco Reference Guide

by David Moyer, MD.


Chapter 42 Humor

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Dr. Simon Chapman comments on the concept of "smokers' rights": ...a generally

unspecified allusion to an inalienable assumption of rights said to apply to smokers.

These alleged rights bear some reflection against the history of arguably comparable

"rights" that have long since eroded. In Elizabethan England, the free exercise of

flatulence even among company was considered normal and not proscribed by

considerations of politeness or offensiveness. Similarly, public expectoration was

commonplace across all social classes in Victorian and Edwardian England, and the

practice remains widespread in many countries today without drawing any social or

legal approbation. There are some pertinent similarities between flatulence, spitting,

and smoking. Each behavior is essentially personal but being not involuntary, is each

capable of being exercised in both private and in public settings. In view of these

parallels, it is salutary to speculate on the likely reception that would be given to

earnest talk about "farters' rights" or "spitters' rights." Clearly, such terms would be

greeted with derision, while "smokers' rights" continues to maintain some currency as

a serious concept.

International Journal of Health Services, 20:425, 1990

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"Philip Morris has announced that because of corporate downsizing, it plans to lay off

two U.S. Senators."

As told by Ronn Owens on his KGO radio talk show, San Francisco, March 24,

1997

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Anti-tobacco advocate Greg Connolly was served by the tobacco industry with a

discovery motion asking for hundreds of documents, including records of his

discussions with a Reverend George Trask. As it turned out, Trask was an abolitionist

who also led a campaign against tobacco, and who died in 1875.

Tobacco Control, Winter 1997, p. 355

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