The fading cigarette vending machine could stage a revival on the American scene. Banned in many communities for giving minors easy access to tobacco, their numbers have plummeted from 700,000 in 1987 to a mere 166,000 today. But in Los Angeles and Cleveland taverns and nightclubs, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. is testing a machine that checks customers' ages with a swipe of their credit card and I.D. The American Cancer Society isn't convinced -- one cynical type even suggested that a kid might just, y'know, use someone else's cards.
Coin-Op Carcinogens?
The fading cigarette vending machine could stage a revival on the American scene. Banned in many communities for giving minors easy access to tobacco, their numbers have plummeted from 700,000 in 1987 to a mere 166,000 today. But in Los Angeles and Cleveland taverns and nightclubs, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. is testing a machine that checks customers' ages with a swipe of their credit card and I.D. The American Cancer Society isn't convinced -- one cynical type even suggested that a kid might just, y'know, use someone else's cards.
