Smoking: The Butt Stops Here

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States and localities are cracking down on smoking even more aggressively. In May, Maryland will institute the tightest statewide restrictions in the nation, banning smoking in virtually all workplaces, except in sealed, separately ventilated rooms. Rules go into effect in the state of Washington in September that will forbid smoking in all enclosed private and public offices. The city of Davis, California, has outlawed smoking in all offices, restaurants, outdoor cafes -- and even at the town's annual Fourth of July fireworks display. (The fireworks can smoke, but people can't.) The New Jersey Supreme Court, in a case that could have nationwide impact, ruled last month that municipalities have the right to ban cigarette-vending machines.

The health effects of smoking are drawing new attention from federal regulators. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed a ban on almost all indoor smoking in the workplace. Even more significant, the activist Food and Drug Administration is taking a look at whether to classify nicotine as a drug -- a move that could effectively remove cigarettes from the over-the-counter market. FDA commissioner David Kessler told Congress he believes that nicotine is a "highly addictive agent" and that cigarette producers control the level of nicotine "that creates and sustains this addiction."

Even without federal prodding, an increasing number of private companies are moving to satisfy the antismoking mood. McDonald's has banned smoking in 1,400 of its company-owned fast-food restaurants in the U.S. Amtrak announced this month that 82% of its trains (up from 62%) will henceforth be smoke free. An estimated one-third of the nation's 1,800 enclosed shopping malls are expected to forbid smoking by the end of this year. Cleveland's stadium is one of 20 * major-league baseball parks to go smokeless; the American Medical Association has urged the majors to ban smoking in all 28. Tobacco companies are under increasing fire for alleged misconduct and cover-ups. Last month Representative Waxman charged that in 1983 tobacco giant Philip Morris discovered the first strong evidence that nicotine is addictive but suppressed the study. Waxman has called the top brass from Philip Morris and six other cigarette firms to testify before his subcommittee about their practices in hearings this week that promise to attract widespread attention. Attorney Melvin Belli is leading a coalition of high-profile lawyers that has filed a $5 billion class-action suit on behalf of everyone who has ever been addicted to nicotine. Said Belli: "We will prove that the tobacco industry has conspired to catch you, hold you and kill you." The ABC News magazine show Day One, in a report on Kessler's FDA investigation, leveled tough charges that cigarette companies "manipulate" the nicotine content of their cigarettes to keep customers smoking -- charges that have prompted a libel suit from Philip Morris. CBS's 60 Minutes weighed in with a report suggesting that cigarette manufacturers conspired to keep fire-safe cigarettes off the market.