beech nut chewing tobacco history BEACH-NUT WAS A HOUSEHOLD NAME! Sold at Auction: Beech-Nut Chewing

The Federal Courts Building removed the ashtrays in 1987.Jim Young/The NewsPatients and employees gather outside the rear entrance to Roudebush Veterans Affairs Hospital in 1989

READ: The fight to free Myanmars child soldiers Around 600 million people worldwide are thought to chew betel quids, making them the fourth most commonly used psychoactive substance after tobacco, alcohol and caffeinated drinks

Furthermore, the display of tobacco products at the point of sale is completely banned, so they cannot be lined up on shelves at the checkout counter

(Famously, a sceptical first minister Jack McConnell flew to Dublin shortly after the ban was enforced and, within hours of meeting two or three carefully chosen pro-ban publicans, returned to Scotland a changed man.) Today, exactly 20 years since the ban was introduced (a weekend I wrote about here), the Guardian has published an equally celebratory piece, Irelands smoking ban 20 years on: how an unheralded civil servant triumphed against big tobacco: Tom Power led an alliance that brought about the pioneering health initiative which has since been adopted by more than 70 countries and has saved countless lives