Health Hazards Even in “No Smoking”

THE Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), February 10, 1989, reported: “The National Academy of Sciences reviewed the data on passive smoking . . . , specifically addressing the environment of airline flights.” The recommendation: “A ban on smoking in all domestic commercial flights for four major reasons: to minimize irritation, to reduce health risks, to reduce fire hazards, and to bring air cabin quality into line with standards for other closed environments.”

The academy’s in-depth study revealed: “Exposures to nicotine measured during the flights using personal exposure monitors were found to be variable, with some nonsmoking areas attaining levels comparable to those in smoking sections. Attendants assigned to work in nonsmoking areas were not protected from smoke exposure.”

The study showed that “air levels of nicotine were highly variable, with some nonsmoking areas attaining levels greater than those in some smoking sections” and reminded readers that “the adverse health effects on nonsmokers of passive, or involuntary, smoking include lung cancer and respiratory disease.”

This same issue of JAMA reported on a study that established the addictive power of nicotine, saying: “Persons seeking treatment for drug dependence tended to rate urges for cigarettes and difficulty in quitting cigarettes as high as or higher than for their main problem substances [alcohol, cocaine, heroin].”

Canada banned smoking on flights of two hours or less in 1987. Both major Canadian airlines went further, banning smoking on all their North American flights. In the United States, federal law has banned smoking on short flights, and “one US airline has voluntarily banned smoking on flights of any length within the United States, except flights to and from Hawaii.” As more airlines adopt similar no smoking policies they will assist toward reducing the hazards of flying.