Top 10 Totally 80s Things That Got Banned

Top 10 80s Things That Are Now Banned

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for things that were popular in the 80s but have since been outlawed.

#10: Driving Without Seat Belts

These days, most people fasten their seat belts as soon as they get in the car without even thinking about it. But U.S. law didn’t require seat belts in all vehicles until 1968, and they were optional to use for years after that. In 1984, New York became the first state to make seat belt wearing mandatory, and other states gradually jumped on board over the next decade. Except, that is, for New Hampshire. If you’re 18 or older or at least 57 inches tall, you still don’t have to buckle up in the Granite State. If you truly hate seat belts, you can still legally ride in the bed of a pickup truck in many states.

#9: MDMA

First synthesized in 1912, this drug was initially used in psychotherapy in the 1970s. Studies have shown that it can have beneficial effects for people suffering from PTSD and social anxiety. In the 1980s, MDMA became popular as a party drug. By the middle of the decade, it was in widespread use in many parts of the country. In 1985, the DEA suddenly decided to classify MDMA as a Schedule I drug, essentially making it illegal overnight. Many psychiatrists fought the classification, arguing that MDMA had legitimate medical uses, but their concerns were dismissed. Today, the FDA allows research on MDMA, but your therapist still can’t prescribe it for you.

#8: Lawn Darts

A heavy, sharp object that’s meant to be thrown pointy-end first? What could go wrong? After a slew of injuries, in 1970 the FDA classified lawn darts as a “mechanical hazard,” meaning they couldn’t be marketed to children and had to carry strict warning labels. Consumer protection groups pressured the government to ban them outright, but they lost that fight. Then, in 1987, a 7-year-old girl was killed by a lawn dart, and her father, David Snow, went on a crusade to get the deadly game outlawed. Throughout the 1980s, more than 6,000 people went to the E.R. due to lawn dart injuries, the vast majority of whom were kids. In December 1988, Snow accomplished his goal, and lawn darts were banned.

#7: Leaded Gasoline

Tetraethyl lead was added to gasoline to improve vehicle performance and reduce engine wear starting in the 1920s. But you’ve probably heard that lead is really bad for humans. Throughout most of the 20th century, all those cars full of people not wearing seat belts were spewing a lot of it into the atmosphere. In the mid-1970s, the U.S. started to phase out the use of leaded gas. Newer cars didn’t need it, but many people kept using it because it was cheaper than unleaded. Amazingly, even though the dangers of lead exposure had been known for decades, leaded gas wasn’t officially banned in America until 1996.

#6: Chlorofluorocarbons

If you were an 80s kid, you probably remember hearing a lot about the ozone layer. It was rapidly depleting thanks to chemicals being dumped into the atmosphere. That was bad news for life on Earth. One of the worst culprits was chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. They were used in a number of household items, like refrigerators, aerosol spray cans, and fire extinguishers. And of course, 80s hairstyles required a lot of aerosol hairspray. Fortunately, in an amazing example of international cooperation, the world came together to create the Montreal Protocol in 1987. It required the phase-out of many of the pollutants causing ozone depletion, including most CFCs. If not for this major step, climate change would probably be a lot worse than it already is.

#5: Raw Milk

Pasteurization, discovered by Louis Pasteur in the 1860s, has saved millions, if not billions, of lives. Pasteurization involves heating a liquid to around 160 degrees Fahrenheit for about 15 seconds, which kills most of the deadly microorganisms that thrive in milk and juice. It even increases the availability of some vitamins. By the 1980s, about half of states required stores to sell only pasteurized milk, but raw milk was still pretty easy to obtain. In the mid-80s, consumer group Public Citizen began pushing for a federal ban, citing hundreds of illnesses and dozens of deaths linked to raw milk. In 1987, a federal court outlawed the interstate sale of raw milk, and now, only a handful of states allow it in retail stores.

#4: Joe Camel

The U.S. used to have a much more cavalier attitude toward smoking, especially teen smoking. In the 80s, many high schools still had designated smoking areas for students. [xref] And candy cigarettes, which were often packaged exactly like the real thing, were popular with kids. [xref] But perhaps most shocking of all was the use of cartoon characters like Joe Camel to market cigarettes. Tobacco companies claimed they weren’t targeting children, but the evidence says otherwise. A 1991 study found that 90% of 6-year-old kids could identify Joe Camel – the same number that recognized Mickey Mouse. The American Heart Association and other health groups urged the FTC to ban the leather-clad mascot, but it took until 1997 to make it happen.

#3: Asbestos

This incredibly toxic substance was widely used as a building material starting in the 1800s, but today it’s illegal in most of the developed world. It became popular because it’s a great insulator and it’s fireproof, but breathing in the fibers will seriously mess up your lungs and can cause cancer. Although the dangers were known for years, asbestos was still widely used in the U.S. in the 1980s. The EPA tried to ban it in 1989, but the industry challenged the ban in court and won. In fact, asbestos is still being used in some goods sold in America. In 2024, the EPA finally got a ban passed, which requires asbestos to be totally phased out by 2037.

#2: Drinking Legally at Age 18

Have you ever wondered why the drinking age in the U.S. is 21 when it’s 18 or lower in most of the rest of the world? Well, blame Ronald Reagan. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, most states set their minimum drinking ages at 21. In the 70s, when the federal voting age was reduced from 21 to 18, many states did the same with their drinking age. For just over a decade, 18-year-olds all over the country could pop open a cold one when they got home from school. But drunk driving skyrocketed during that time. In 1984, Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which cut states’ highway funding if they didn’t raise their drinking ages back up to 21.

#1: Indoor Smoking

There was a time when you couldn’t go anywhere in the U.S. without being enveloped in a cloud of secondhand smoke. Smoking was allowed in restaurants, malls, schools, and on airplanes. Cigarettes were even sold in vending machines. But as the health effects of smoking became widely known, people started pushing for bans on smoking indoors. After all, it doesn’t do much good to sit in the nonsmoking section of a restaurant when the smokers are sitting just ten or twenty feet away. In 1994, Utah passed the first ban on smoking in public places. Now, 38 states have totally or partially banned smoking in enclosed areas. For most people, smoking on a plane or in a restaurant is unthinkable.

Which of these 80s things would you like to see make a comeback? Which ones do you think should stay banned? Let us know in the comments.