Airline Smoking Ban Urged

The National Academy of Sciences is prepared to call for a ban on smoking aboard all domestic flights of commercial jetliners, concluding cigarette smoke poses health and safety problems, government and industry sources said today.

They said the recommendation is contained in a report on overall air quality concerns in aircraft cabins by the academy’s National Research Council, scheduled to be released Wednesday. The proposal is expected to revive a longstanding debate over whether the government should further restrict smoking aboard large jetliners.