Handsel Art

PRESS RELEASE

Date: 21 February 2005

For Immediate Release

Contact: J.R. Few at

(870) 427-1365 or email

handselart@marioncounty.com

 

Flying Smoke Free Air

This February 25th celebrates the 15th anniversary of guaranteed smoke free domestic air travel but represents over three decades of activism for smoke free workplaces.  Flight attendants, led by activist Patty Young, began fighting for the right to work in a tobacco-free environment in the summer of 1966.   In 1969 Ralph Nader petitioned the Federal Aeronautics Administration and began the long process towards legislated policy change protecting nonsmokers on commercial flights. Ironically, the first protection offered travelers was a prohibition on smoking in lavatories in 1973 after a fire in an airliner bathroom caused the deaths of 124 people.  In 1986 the National Academy of Science’s report on the airliner cabin environment recommended totally smoke free air on all commercial flights.

 

Subsequently, following concerted lobbying efforts by health advocates, Congress passed smoke free legislation on US domestic flights of less than two hours in 1988 and extended to flights of less than six hours in 1990. Smoke free skies became the norm in 2000 when clean cabin air was mandated on all domestic and international flights traveling to and from the United States.

 

Today, due to the hard work of pilot and flight attendant unions, numerous public health groups,  a few courageous legislators, and a growing bank of scientific evidence of the dangers of secondhand smoke, travelers and workers almost globally no longer have to suffer exposure to a Class A carcinogen when we fly.

 

“There is still much to be done to ensure that everyone breathes smoke free air. We achieved smoke free workplaces in the sky.  Let’s protect everyone on the ground too,” says Cynthia Hallet with Americans for Nonsmoker’s Rights. 

 

The movement to guarantee clean air in aircraft represents a case study in effective advocacy for smoke-free workplaces.  Incremental approaches like this and in California have shown just how important smoke free legislation is in improving public health. 10 years after passage of an unprecedented statewide smoke free workplace law, January 2005 Field Research Poll data released by the California Department of Health Services today show that 90% of Californians approve of the state's smoke free workplace law and smoking among youth continues to decline to a record 13.2%. Adult tobacco use has dropped 30%. There is no evidence of any economic loss due to this public health legislation.

 

"Legislated smoke free policies help protect people from the dangers of secondhand smoke," says North Arkansas Drug Awareness and Prevention Executive Director Andrea Parton. "The California Field Research poll provides evidence that these policies also help smokers quit their deadly addiction." A 2003 study published in the British Medical Journal from Helena, Montana showed a clean indoor air ordinance reducing heart attacks by 40% over night.

 

The town of Highfill, home of Northwest Arkansas Airport, was the first municipality in Arkansas with a smoke free workplace ordinance.  Little Rock National Airport went smoke free in 2003.  The December Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report reveals that 61.9% of airports in the U.S. have smoke free policies including the Marion County Regional Airport in Flippin, Arkansas.


 

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 Travelers flying in and out of Marion County enjoy smoke free air in the Marion County Regional Airport terminal.

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