Tobacco Documents Online

Appendix C AEROPLANE SMOKING: PLAIN FACTS ABOUT A CONFUSED ISSUE

2 "...available scientific evidence does not support the prohibition of smoking on commercial aircraft. The data that are available reveal low concentrations of substances that can be traced to ETS in smoking cections, and even lower concentrations in non-smoking sections, thus confirming the efficacy of current in-flight smoking policies. The available data also suggest that factors or substances other than ETS may be major contributors to subjective complaints of discomfort by passengers and flight crew. Finally, given the limited and intermittent occasions for exposure, even in the case of compromised individuals and cabin attendants, adverse health effects from exposure to ETS aboard aircraft are highly unlikely." L.C. Holcomb "Impact of Environmental Tobacco Smoke on Airline Cabin Air Quality" April, 1988 (4)

SOFt=IMARSTcUCr- ';i-'HTiG33__ 3 Susama ry in the past two years, several airlines and some governments have decided to take away the freedom of airline passengers to smoke on certain flights. The official justifications for these restrictions have varied, but they essentially involve three arqus+entss a) that environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) in aeroplanes is a health hazard b) that smokinq creates unacceptable-in-fliqht air quality, or c) that passengers want smoking bans. None of these arguments hold up under scrutiny. The health issue... Independent scientists have repeatedly concluded that ETS has not been proven to create a health hazard, even after exposures far longer than passengers or crew are cver likely to experience while flying.

. ~---...a..-..,...~.... 5 .~--- , ~AN,?7 - 3$3~RSCi1-?dr+,P.SIcLLER ~,~ i The air quality issue... Tests of the presence of ETS in aircraft have shown only insignificant levels of smoke constituents, especially in non-smoking sections. Meanwhile, a variety of invisible factors which may be causing passenger discomfort -- e . g . , low humidity, high levels of ozone or carbon dioxide, or other contaminants -- have generally been overlooked. Such contaminants are worthy of further scientific study and depending on the results of those studies, for airline or government action. The passenger preference question... independently conducted surveys of airline passengers show that only a minority of air travellers want smoking bans. A majority favour leaving things the way they are: with smoking and non-smoking sections that allow freedom of choice. The Health issue There is no scientitic study ever published which purports to show that environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) creates a health hnzard aboard commercial aircraft. The accusation that such a hazard exists is usually made when smoking ban activists try to draw inferences from ETS studies in which aircraft are never mentioned. But such inferences are doubly flawed:

cll J-aY, .,, .99 S - They ignore the scientific inadequacies of the ETS studies upon which they depend - They~attempt to apply the studies to a context and at an exposure level they were never intended to address The simple fact is that even prolonged exposures to ETS over periods of many years have not been shown to create a health hasard. Numerous studies have been conducted of possible associations between ETS and various forms of illness. For the most part, these studies have involved populations with exposures over many yeare, and even decades. Many have involved the non-smoking wives of smoking husbands, women whose exposures have presusably included several hours per day, every day for most of their adult lives. While a few of those studies suggested some possible association between ETS and one or another health problem, they have been subjected to severe and repeated criticism in the scientific literature. They have been shown to be tainted by multiple forms of scientific bias, inadequate data, and a failure to take account of other possible causes NJ tn of disease and confounding factors. o r G X_ Ln

IAN,?7 3 9 f?~`:~~ ~ EIJRSC~)y-MARS~ELL :~ 0i-jK-M3 6 For example, after a thorough review of all the relevant literature in 1987, an eminent German scientist concluded that, usinq-the standards of the International Agency for Research in Cancer, an association between ETS and lung cancer has not been proved. (14) The same conclusion has been reached by other independent scientists with respect to ETS and other health problems. (15) The alleged health risks created by in-flight ETS are wildly speculative in part because they are purportedly based upon such studies of long term exposures. In contrast, even the most frequent travellers fly only 10 to 30 hours per month. Air crews fly from 70 to 80 hours per month. These exposures to ETS have absolutely no relation to those that have been studied and reviewed in the scientific literature. indeed, studies of the blood nicotine levels of flight attendants -- who work in both smoking and no-smoking areas -- have shown minimal doses of gTS constituents. In studies of flight attendants on a transoceanic flight, the authors concluded that, because nicotine levels in the blood increased only insignificantly, physiological effects were unlikely. (3)

: A;1, _ 7 BL'F.SGtiAA:PST"c;,L'cR G 1-a3O -10 3 3 7 Therght Air Quality Issue: FTS A variety of published studies have looked at the specific question of how much LTS there is in aircraft. These research studies consistently indicate: o That the presence of ETS in cabin-air is insignificant, particularly in non-smoking areas o That the aircraft ventilation systems tend to work well in controlling IT3 o That the creation of smoking and non-smoking zones successfully limits most of what little ETS there is to the smoking sections of the cabin o That, to the degree passengers feel discomfort in aeroplanes, other factors (particularly low humidity, high levels of carbon dioxide and osone) are likely to blame and that "smokinq" may be a scapegoat issue that masks other air quality problems. The various studies of aircraft ETS have involved long and short-h&ul flights, wide-bodied and narrow-bodied aircraft, and have included both randomly selected and deliberately selected seats in every aircraft compartment (i.e. smoking and non-smoking sections in the various classes of service).

8 These studios return again and again to the issue of the quality and maintenance of the ventilation system in the aircraft. Modern aircraft contain well-constructed vsntilation systems designed to manage the circulation and recirculation of air. Cabin air typically moves slightly diagonally from ceiling nozzles to floor grilles, with only a limited flow from the front of the cabin to the rear. Although air sometimes recirculates within zones, most systems are designed to avoid recirculation from one zone to another. (4) The studies repeatedly show that little mixing of air occurs between one air treatment zone and another: In particular, monitoring aboard wide-bodied 747a found that the aircratt's five air-conditioning zones effectively control ETS, eliminating it with relatively little intrusion into non-smoking areas. (2). Thus, L C Holcomb in ~Impact of Environmental Tobacco Smoke on Airline Cabin Quality' noted that there is "little air movement in the modern commercial aircraft between compartment or zones." (4)

i srl. : r 6 y 4 'jT '~:"' . eIji~J~.~~I-I~QN.J-jt;.l.~;C ~~ -r'~11 ~ 9 _._~- ._._...._.~..-... RQsearch in 1987 on short-haul, narrow-bodied 727-200, 737-200 and 737-300 jets concluded that size of the aircraft was less important in deteratining the ability to handle ETS than was cotnpartmentalisation (i.e. dividing cabins by walls that separate classes or sections) and the type of ventilation system. (10) Later that year, ETS readings wera taken aboard wide-bodied aoeing 747s crossing time-zones on long range flights -- the thirteen hour run from Tokyo to New York City and back and the five hour flight from Tokyo to xon9 1con9 and back. Zt was concluded that the estimated exposures to ETS were "consistent with prior measurements on short-haul, narrow-body, domestic flights." (2) 2n both narrow and wide-bodied aircraft, on short or long flights, it was found that the aircraft ventilation systems handled ETS adequately. secause most systems are designed to suppress the drift of air contaminants, such as ETS, either across aisles or down the cabin, Oldaker and Conrad concluded that: "ETS will tend to remain within a single port or starboard row of seats owin¢ to the effect of air movement patterns." (10)

; aN, ? i' g¢ 'IT ~x a'JP.SO~I-M4cr.S?'EL! Ep ! + The Inflight Air Quality Issue: Passen er txposure to ETS .. Three of the most detailed surveys of ETS levels calculated passenger exposures to ETS using so-called "cigarette equivalents". Dr J Drake (whose study covered long-haul flights of 5 and 13 hours, in wide-boditd aircraft) estimated that exposure to ETS in non-smoking areas would be equal to around one one-thousandth of a cigarette per hour, specifically 0.00I7 ~cigarette equivalents' per hour. In smoking areas, ETS exposure equalled eight one-thousandths of a cigarette (0.008) per hour. (2) Murumatsu, Umetaura, Okada and Tonita, in their survey of in-flight ETS levels, also found that the exposure to ETS on Japanese domestic aircraft was small, only equivalent at its maximum to the amount of nicotine inhaled through active smoking of 0,024 cigarettes an hour. (7) Oldaker and Conrad estimated mean exposures of 0.0041 and 0.0082 cigarette equivalents per :light in no-smoking and smoking zones respectively. Equally important were the high ventilation rates: 26.5 air changes per hour for 8727-200s, 22.7 for 737-200s and 26.3 for 737-300s. (10) Such rates suggest that venti:ation tn modern aeropla::es provide very active air circulation.