Herald Title: PROOF THE ANTI-SMOKING ZEALOTRY IS OUT OF CONTROL

Globe Title: THE PRICE OF A CIGARETTE

You can't miss the signs. They're all over the place, nearly everywhere you
go, indoors as well as out.

You also can't miss the attitude. Dismissive. Contemptuous. Judgmental. A
whole cross-section of human beings automatically labeled or ostracized
because of a single bad habit.

The signs say, ''No Smoking.'' And the mindset toward those who do can
assume a zealotry that is absurd.

Smoking cigarettes is lousy. Everyone's aware of that because smoking has
replaced communism, nuclear war, illiteracy, poverty, and teen violence as
America's No. 1 threat.

For good reason, too: Cigarettes can kill you. Not as quickly as a handgun
but kill you just the same over a long, painful, and quite costly period of
time.

Plus, kids can easily get hooked on tobacco. Nicotine is a narcotic and
thousands of teenagers think they look cool with a butt dangling from their
lips.

As a result, government has declared war on smoking. And smokers have been
forced to pay a big price for their rotten, filthy, destructive,
wicked-annoying habit in the form of increased costs along with being
branded pariahs by the world around them. Crack addicts attract more
sympathy than pathetic weaklings unable to resist a Virginia Slim.

That brings us to this morning's tale. It involves a Woburn woman who lost
her job over a single cigarette.

She had been unemployed for a couple of months until last week when she
took a position at a Somerville company. After reporting for work on
Monday, she was happy to undergo several hours of training for clerical
work that paid $12 an hour.

Let's have her tell you what happened: ''About 11 a.m., I got a break. I
went outside to my car and had a cigarette. I know how people are about
smoking and I would never light up in an office or anyplace like that.

''When I returned, the woman in charge asked me to come into her office.
Then she said to me, `Do you smoke? Did you just go out to have a
cigarette?' And I said, `Yes.'

''She said, `You really smoke?' and I told her again, `Yes, I do.' But I
pointed out that I always take Tic-Tacs after and I even use perfume
sometimes to erase any odor.

''Then she said, `We can't have a smoker here.' I asked her, `Even in my
car? Outside in my car?' and she said, `No. We can't have any smokers
working here. You'll have to leave.'''

''I couldn't believe it,'' the newly unemployed-again woman was saying.
''When I went for the interview, the subject of smoking never came up.
Nobody asked me about it.

''I'd been on unemployment for seven months. It was crucial that I get that
job. I know smoking is bad, but does it mean that I am to be treated like a
leper?''

She spent last week calling for help about a circumstance that saw her
tossed to the street because she smoked a cigarette in her car. Thinking
this might be a form of discrimination, she called the labor board. She
called the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination as well as the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. A total waste of time.

''I was so desperate and so angry I even called an outfit named GASP. But
it's for nonsmokers. Finally I called the attorney general's office and had
a lousy one-minute conversation that really upset me.

''I spoke to a woman in the office and she sounded offended that I had
called,'' she added. ''She told me there was nothing they could do. That
what happened to me was not discrimination. That an employer could dismiss
an employee for any reason, including smelling like smoke.

''The more I think about it, the madder I get. I think I got screwed royally.

''I smoke. I know it's not a good habit. I've been smoking since I was a
teenager, for about 20 years. I've tried to stop, too, but I can't. I smoke
less than a pack a day. I wish I didn't smoke at all, but it doesn't make
me a bad person or an inefficient employee. A criminal would get better
treatment. I needed that job. Now what do I do?''

Who knows? Find someplace where you can take a shower after every cigarette
break? Stuff two dozen doughnuts in your mouth instead of a Salem and get
fired for being too fat? Lie?

This is marvelous. We have now reached the point where the mere hint of a
habit that's been declared Public Enemy No. 1 is enough to see dreams of
steady work go up in smoke.