Anti-Smoking Campaign

Report Outline
Interest in Non-Smokers' Rights
History of Anti-Smoking Efforts
Pressures on the Cigarette Industry
Special Focus

Interest in Non-Smokers' Rights

Court Victories by Anti-Smoking Militants

In los angeles, a school district employee quit his job because he was bothered by smoke from co-workers' cigars and cigarettes. The California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board refused to pay the man unemployment benefits on the ground that he did not have “good cause” for resigning. However, a state court judge overturned the board's decision last July 22 and awarded the man $990 in unemployment benefits.

In Atlantic City, a state court judge ruled last April that an employee of the New Jersey Bell Telephone Co. had a right to work in a smoke-free environment. The employee presented medical documentation of an allergic reaction to cigarette smoke and the judge ordered the company to provide “safe working conditions…by restricting the smoking of employees to non-work areas.”

In Chicago, dozens of persons have had to spend the night in jail because they were unable to post a $25 bond after being arrested for smoking on Chicago Transit Authority buses or trains. Since July 1975, hundreds of Chicagoans have been fined up to $300 for violating the city's anti-smoking law.