On This Day In 1990 Smoking Was Banned On US Domestic Flights Of Less Than 6 Hours

[sAiLiNg AnArChY]

On This Day In 1990 Smoking Was Banned On US Domestic Flights Of Less Than 6 Hours

Source: FORBES

There was a time when aircraft cabins were filled with secondhand smoke that posed a threat to everyone onboard the plane. February 25, 2023, marks the 33rd anniversary of a Federal law banning smoking on all United States domestic flights shorter than six hours. The ban affected around 16,000 domestic flights leaving just 28 flights where it would be permitted to light up.​

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Smoking was commonplace aboard aircraft​

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Before the ban, lighting and smoking a cigarette on a plane was akin to ordering a drink and all part of the air travel experience. When the smoking ban became law, it was seen as a critical step in helping to improve public health by limiting people's exposure to secondhand smoke.​

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Before the ban, lighting and smoking a cigarette on a plane was akin to ordering a drink and all part of the air travel experience. When the smoking ban became law, it was seen as a critical step in helping to improve public health by limiting people's exposure to secondhand smoke.​

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At the time, the tobacco lobby and many smokers were against the ban claiming that it would make people seek other forms of travel. This was similar to the outcry when smoking was banned in bars and pubs many years later. Today smoking bans are welcome, as smoking harms our health, and banning it in public spaces benefits everyone.​

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Banning all smoking was a long process​

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People were against the ban arguing for smokers' rights. It took a further ten years until the government banned smoking on all flights originating or arriving in the United States. When speaking about the airline smoking ban with American business magazine Forbes chief operating officer of Legacy, an anti-smoking advocacy group Dave Dobbins said:​

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"February 25 is an important anniversary because it established a precedent that airline cabins were an environment not to have smoking. That provided a model for understanding that this could be done in other places as well.​

"By the mid-1990s, the airlines came to understand that the vast majority of their passengers liked this change, which was funny because people thought that was impossible – until it happened," Dobbins said. "The majority of people who didn't have a voice figured out how much better the air quality was when smoking went away."​

Dobbins added, "​

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"Without it, we wouldn't have had smoke-free restaurants and workplaces."​

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Before the smoking ban, airlines used to offer smoking and none smoking seats on planes, yet keeping smokers away from nonsmokers had no effect as everyone breathed the same smoke-filled air. The same thing happened in restaurants with smoking and non-smoking sections; it was like saying this part of the swimming pool was a no-peeing area when everyone shared the same water.​

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The smoking ban did have one adverse effect, which was an unforeseen consequence. After banning smoking on planes, it became more difficult for maintenance workers to spot loose rivets and cracks in the fuselage. Before, when people smoked on aircraft, any place where air could escape would leave a stain. On the other hand, the aircraft cabin air filters did not need to be changed as often as before the smoking ban.​

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Banning smoking overseas​

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Internationally, it took a little longer for overseas airlines to ban smoking. I remember flying from Athens to New York with Olympic Airlines. It seemed like smoking was obligatory as nearly everyone onboard the aircraft was puffing away. Fortunately, this ended in 1997 after the European Union banned smoking on all member states flights. Things took a little longer in some other nations, with China not banning smoking on planes until 2017.​

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[Goodvibes]

Iggy Pop, smoking on the airplane.

 

[MagentaLine]

What sucks is that instead of extracting the nicotine and carcinogens from the second hand smoke of passengers, the airlines must now install expensive machinery on board to artificially generate contrails which significantly adds to the weight of the aircraft increasing fuel costs resulting in higher ticket prices.

 

[veni vidi vici]

lol…. They did have smoking sections
along with the right of passage of smoking a joint in the lavatory and rolling out in a cloud next to the stewardess station 🕺😎🤡

 

[Blue Crab]

Goodbye Magenta Line.

 

[Mrleft8]

1990?
I thought it was way before that. I flew a lot in the 80s, and I smoked.... I don't remember smoking on planes. I d remember smoking like a fiend in the gate area to get that nicotine in my system before boarding a flight.

 

[MR.CLEAN]

I remember the day, and I remember feeling so lucky when I traveled back and forth to france afterwards 'cause I could still sit in the rear 10 rows and chain smoke.

I think Air France finally killed that around y2k.

 

[veni vidi vici]

I remember the day, and I remember feeling so lucky when I traveled back and forth to france afterwards 'cause I could still sit in the rear 10 rows and chain smoke.

I think Air France finally killed that around y2k.

Do you still smoke?
I hope not

 

[boomer]

Sitting next to a mother who smoked at the dinner table, with her ashtray to my direct right, I knew how bothersome cigarette can be to others. When I did take up smoking in the service, I made a point of smoking outside, so as to not infringe on someone else's space with my secondhand cigarette smoke. I flew a lot in the 70s and 80s, and though I smoked, and though it was allowed, I didn't smoke aboard flights, because I knew even though the air was pulled and delivered through gaspers overhead, I didn't want to bother fellow passengers seated close by with my smoke. To me it wasn't the proper and polite thing to do to your fellow passengers.

 

[Blue Crab]

Remember when there was a non-smoking section ... the first three rows as I recall.

 

[NeedAClew]

I remember the horror of being near the "smoking section." Health aside, even my underwear smelled of smoke, as did my hair.

 

[Quickstep192]

I flew to Greece on Olympic airlines twenty some years ago.

I was in the “non-smoking” section which meant one of the seats in the first three rows, just like Blue Crab said. There was no divider. Just a sign indicating that the rows forward of the sign were non-smoking and the rows aft of the sign were smoking.

Virtually everyone on the plane was smoking. I got to stretch my legs during the night and figured I’d walk to the back of the plane. The smoke was so thick, I couldn’t even see the back of the plane! Just little red glowing circles throughout the plane!

 

[veni vidi vici]

I remember movie theaters and seeing the beam of the projector to the screen in wispy cigarette smoke.
It is amazing how one became accustomed to the smell of cigarette smoke even for a non smoker and now I can catch a wisp of it from 100 feet away.

 

[Point Break]

Both parents smoked. I never did, never tried. Didn’t like the smell from my earliest memory. I can smell it when a smoker walks in the room. I think they’re just not aware since they smoke of how strong the smell is on their hair, clothes etc. I for one am quite glad of the shift to nonsmoking in public places, restaurants etc. One of the very few things Cali did right.

 

[Borax Johnson]

Both of my parents smoked as well. In the house, in the car, at the dinner table. It made me so not want to smoke that I never tried nor was tempted. My dad died from COPD (which used to be called emphysema). His last 3-4 years were horrible.

First it was drugs to open his lungs, then it was a little oxygen when he was out and about and then in about the last year it was 5 liters of oxygen that the docs said was not good, but better than no oxygen.

Then it got worse. Much worse. Then he died.

 

[veni vidi vici]

Smoking is at the top of the list in every medical history questionnaire.
Nicotine is a nasty nasty addictive substance.
My mom was a 3 pack a day Pall Mall smoker until early 40’s then quit. Lung cancer finally killed her, fortunately it was extremely rapid, at Christmas she was seemingly healthy and the whole family together, by Mothers Day early May she was gone 25 years after she stop smoking.
I had a old sailing buddy that went out with COPD , I had not seen him in his last years but his cousin told me that in his last days he looked like “a living corpse “ . Hard to imagine that a once strapping free diver and waterman could go out like that. He smoked cigarettes and pot like a chimney.
I never smoked aspiring to be all things adventurous.

 

[Talchotali]

I remember movie theaters and seeing the beam of the projector to the screen in wispy cigarette smoke.
It is amazing how one became accustomed to the smell of cigarette smoke even for a non smoker and now I can catch a wisp of it from 100 feet away.

From a thousand feet away...

Washington went non-smoking in bars/restaurants in 2008. It was thought to be the death of the bar industry. However, it didn't take long for folks wonder how they ever could have put up with indoor smoking in any form for so long, including smokers. I'm sure it extended the life of bar staff by ten years.

However, afterward it was tough to travel to Italy, Germany and France were smoking was a necessary life function.

I remember going to Paris after France finally went non-smoking and going to the same dive bars as usual and then realizing that I had never actually seen the grand interiors before, just little circular vignettes that faded off into the Gauloises haze.

 

[Go Left]

Right before the US smoking ban the political/social swing was was already well underway. I remember sitting next to a pleasant looking business lady in the non-smoking section where the air, of course, was still disgusting. When I asked her what she did, she told me she worked in PR for a "Fortune 500 Company", which was a weird answer obviously, and demanded more pestering by me. After three or so more questions she fessed up to working for Lorillard.

At which point I just pointed out that we were in the non-smoking section, and it didn't seem like it was helping any. She got busy fiddling with her important papers.

 

[MR.CLEAN]

Do you still smoke?
I hope not

Not tobacco!

 

[MagentaLine]

Not tobacco!

crack?