wrote:


I wish I could remember the name of the corporation--it was on the news
a couple years ago and I remember the story distinctly because I was
pretty horrified. Employees had to have their blood tested for
nicotine, and were given a three-strikes-and-you're-out ultimatum.
Of course there was all the propoganda about wanting employees to be
healthier and it was "for their own good." They were given all kinds of
help to stop. But still, it creeped me out.
My FIL, who was at Pearl Harbor, talks about how the Red Cross would
ship cigarettes to the GI's. That's mind-boggling, too. :-)

You'd find it less so if you put it in historical context!
The studies involving the health effects of smoking were
still a long, long way in the future, at that point - no one
looked upon smoking as harmful, so cigarettes were just one
of the "comforts of home" that GI's missed and couldn't
always get. Haven't you watched any of the old movies on
Turner Movie Classics? Nearly everyone in them smokes, the
first thing most of the characters do after a stressful
moment, or just sitting down to relax, is to light up a
cigarette! That's pretty much the way it was, then - if
people stopped smoking, it was mostly to save money (even
though cigarettes cost less than $2 a carton, back then).