The New Jersey Sanitary Code

The documents provide a small glimpse of one tobacco industry effort in New Jersey to oppose the regulation of public smoking. When the Public Health Council of New Jersey planned hearings in October 1977 to amend the New Jersey sanitary code to restrict smoking, Brown and Williamson and the other tobacco companies, both directly and through the Tobacco Institute, organized to oppose this proposal, and worked to mobilize local groups, such as the Restaurant and Tavern Association and law enforcement associations {2300.01}. As a result of their efforts, the Public Health Council was shorn of its rule-making authority in this area, and within a few years

the Legislature passed a series of weak laws with strong preemption language that prevented localities and other jurisdictions from taking action to protect nonsmokers.