>I honestly don't think that in 1944 "passive smoking" was an hot issue.
>-------------
>Peter Sarram
>Northwestern University
>[log in to unmask]
>Peace!
 
Guess again -- before you argue from supposition, consider that many
intuitively knew that smoking was unhealthy -- or as they might have put it
"disgusting."  Check out the history of women demanding that men not smoke
in the house, or in front of "ladies."  Some folks had a sense of smell,
asthma, watery eyes;  some women intuitively knew that smoking around
babies couldn't be good for them -- I bet you could find plenty of such
references in women's magazines, fiction, and in journals on respiratory
medicine, if you tried. Do you think the phrase "smoker's cough" was coined
by the surgeon general? I know the women in my family said things similar
to the line in the film in the fifties and blamed the Army and WWII for
"making" the soldiers smoke, long before this was "discovered." So maybe we
are just getting a reference to intuitive knowledge, as well as a nod to
contemporary audiences.
 
Maureen Turim
University of Florida
c/o [log in to unmask]
 
 
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