New Law Hailed : Ban on Smoking Takes Effect on Most U.S. Flights

Pilots switched on the “no-smoking” sign aboard most domestic airliners today as smokers and nonsmokers alike cheered a new federal law prohibiting cigarette smoking on flights lasting less than two hours.

The ban affects passengers riding on about 80% of U.S. air carriers’ estimated 17,300 daily flights.

Less than half of the passengers leaving John Wayne Airport would be affected by the new rule, said Christine Edwards, chief of airport operations.

Travelers lighting up in defiance of the law could face a $1,000 fine.

But smokers and airline employees alike predicted that there will be few violations by passengers, who are already restricted from smoking on one carrier’s planes and--since Jan. 1--on all flights between California cities.

Charter flights, international flights and all flights by foreign airlines are exempt from the new smoking ban.

“I’m just going to give up cigarettes in my life,” sighed Peter Vescovo, 55, of Dallas, who nursed a Marlboro Friday as he waited at John Wayne Airport for a San Francisco flight to visit his son. “They beat me. Now you always worry if you’re offending someone. I get to where I sit in nonsmoking sections anymore just to get used to it.”

Tustin resident Denise Gumpert, 28, and her husband, Lee, looked out over the airport Tarmac from the terminal balcony as they waited for a flight.

“It won’t make that much difference,” she said, waving a cigarette in the light wind. “I can settle down for two hours without a smoke. Besides, I think everybody has a right to breathe smoke-free air.”

The law may not be a permanent one, however. At the end of two years, Congress will evaluate the ban’s effect and decide whether to continue it. Health officials said Friday that they are hoping that the prohibition lasts forever.

“It’s sound public policy to protect the lungs of nonsmokers from secondhand smoke,” said Dr. Spencer Koerner, president of the Los Angeles County chapter of the American Lung Assn. “Most smokers can tolerate not smoking at the movies or in church or in the synagogue. We think they can put up with a two-hour flight.”

Some nonsmokers at John Wayne Airport--named after the lifetime smoker and symbol of the conservative American spirit who died from lung cancer--strongly supported the ban.

“It’s about . . . time,” fumed James Raeder, 22, a student from Boulder, Colo., who had just arrived on an overbooked flight that forced him into the smoking section. “It was a nightmare. I told them, ‘There’ll be no smoking next to me.’ And they’re looking at me like I’m kidding. I was serious. How disgusting.”

Health groups have suggested that nervous smokers chew gum or suck on candy to get through the tobacco-less flights. At least one carrier, American Airlines, has said it plans to provide hard candies to passengers.

Hard-core smokers were skeptical Friday that such ploys will work, however.

“I don’t care to fly anyway, it makes me tense” said Dan Mullen, 31, a Cleveland telephone repairman attending classes in Orange County. “This relaxes me,” he said, gripping a cigarette as he sat near the passenger unloading curb outside the John Wayne terminal.

“A chain-smoker in my class was glad he’s leaving today for Detroit,” Mullen said. “I don’t know what he’d do with the ban.”

Some Get Nervous

“Some people get nervous when they fly,” said Gary Krueger, a Buena Park printer clutching a cigarette as he prepared to board a plane from Los Angeles International Airport for a 65-minute hop to Las Vegas. “I’ll be biting my fingernails on the flight back home on Sunday.”

Said another Las Vegas-bound passenger, Fullerton resident Linda Navarro: “I guess they’ll be confiscating our matches at the boarding gate. I’ll just have to smoke like a fiend until I get on.”

Edith Nelson, who said she has been a smoker for 40 of her 76 years, said she hopes officials relent and allow smokers to once again congregate at the rear of planes.

“Back there, you’re not bothering anybody but the girls in the back who are serving lunch. And most of them smoke, too,” she said.

Not so, said Suzanne Haughton, a flight attendant for USAir. She said she knows colleagues who have been forced to quit work because of respiratory problems brought on by secondhand cigarette smoke aboard airliners.

‘Support New Law’

“The majority of us absolutely support the new law,” said Haughton of Charlotte, N.C. “I don’t look forward to the conflicts that will come with it, though. There are going to be problems. There are passengers who rip your head off on a 28-minute flight if they can’t smoke.”

TWA pilot Lloyd Murray, 46, of Mission Viejo said that although he sits up front in the cockpit, he fully supports the ban for health reasons.

“I think it’s a healthier environment not to breathe secondary smoke,” he said, standing outside the John Wayne terminal waiting for a ride home. “I think it’s great.”

And few passengers would likely object to the new ban, Murray said. “Generally the passengers are pretty cooperative about the rules if they know them beforehand,” he added. “Certainly a small minority will be unhappy.”

Cockpit crews are prepared to enforce the law, however, said Paul Stermer, a first officer with United Airlines.

Smoke Detectors

“If they try to sneak a smoke in the lavatories, there are smoke detectors that we can hear all the way in the front,” said Stermer.

“I’m very unhappy about the rule,” said Scott McFeely, 41, of Madera County’s Oakhurst, an unapologetic two-pack-a-day smoker. “I don’t like it but I’ll put up with it.”

Puffing on a last-chance cigarette minutes before he boarded his flight home from John Wayne Airport, McFeeley described the scene to come when he disembarks.

“I’ll make sure I have a pack in my pocket,” he said, grinning. “Then I’ll run to a place where I can comfortably light up and chain smoke for 20 minutes until everything’s all right.”

There were indications Friday that passengers will also be on the alert for suspected unauthorized smoking. Smoker Neal Ziegman of Seattle found that out when he lit up in a Los Angeles International terminal waiting area posted with “no smoking” signs.

Other travelers angrily confronted him and loudly demanded that he put the cigarette out.

“They’ve gone too far,” Ziegman said.

He vowed to hunt for a through flight home that will avoid stopovers--and thus avoid the effect of the new two-hour flight rule.

SMOKING AT JOHN WAYNE AIRPORTNO SMOKING

All flights, all airlines, less than two hours, including:

AMERICA WEST: All flights.

US AIR (which acquired PSA): All flights from John Wayne are nonsmoking flights.

SMOKING PERMITTED

AMERICAN AIRLINES: Nonstop flights to Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth and Seattle/Tacoma.

CONTINENTAL AIRLINES: Flights to Denver.

DELTA AIRLINES: Flights to Dallas/Ft. Worth.

TWA: Nonstop flights to St. Louis.

UNITED: Nonstop flights to Chicago.