Smokers Huffing, Puffing About Ban on Most 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 on about 80% of U.S. air carriers’ estimated 17,300 daily flights. 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 on all flights between California cities.

A Lot of Huffing and Puffing by Smokers

All this put Loriann L. in a rotten mood, one that not even a dozen cigarettes, smoked in less than an hour, could cure.

She was sitting in a smoky coffee shop in the East Terminal at Lindbergh Field, whiling away a Friday afternoon, looking grumpy and feeling foul.

“I think it’s stupid,” she said. “And it . . . “

The off-color verb she used can’t be printed in a family newspaper. Loriann, who hails from Phoenix, also asked that her last name not be used.

She was hardly alone. A pack of smokers, interviewed at Lindbergh Field on the eve of the smoking ban, had little good to say about anyone telling them what to do. And few wanted their names used.

“We’re fearful, suspicious, paranoid,” said a man in a gray suit who said he could only be quoted as John. “All of these rules have made us this way. We’re self-conscious to the point of embarrass ment. The vigilante attitude against smokers has made us all nervous wrecks. Now we’re not just nervous about smoking, we’re neurotic.”

Loriann L. and her sister, Katy L., agreed--fiercely.

“We’re taking a beating out there,” said Loriann L., who added that she was tempted to ignore the ban, which took effect at midnight. “If it wasn’t smoking, they’d be bitching at us about something else. We have AIDS and a nuclear arms buildup. If people got as fired about those as they do about smoking, we’d have both of ‘em licked.”

“It’s really stupid,” said Katy L. “Nobody should have the right to tell us what to do. It is a free country, or at least it’s supposed to be.”

Going to ‘Get Tough’

But USAir pilot Tim Tilton called the ban great. “I’m a nonsmoker who hates cigarette smoke,” he said. “If I were to get a passenger who refused to obey the ban, I’d let them smoke but summon authorities as soon as we landed and have them arrested. We’re all going to get tough about this.”

The ban might not be permanent, however. At the end of two years, Congress will evaluate the ban’s effect and decide whether to continue it. Charter flights, international flights and all flights by foreign airlines are exempt from the smoking ban.

Health officials said Friday that they are hoping 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.”

Koerner’s group has suggested that nervous smokers chew gum or suck on candy during such flights. At least one carrier, American Airlines, has said it plans to provide hard candies to passengers.

Some smokers, who engulf as much as a pack a day, said the ban doesn’t bother them and that they will happily adhere to it. Like many fellow smokers, they have tried to quit, would like to quit, haven’t quit.

“I never smoke on an airplane,” said Peggy Hart, who works for an investment firm in San Diego. “And I don’t feel violated about any ban. On a plane, I try to get as far away from smokers as possible. The only people who smoke on airplanes are the real chain smokers.”

Smokes Out of Nervousness

Hart, 41, said she smokes out of nervousness and would dearly love to quit. She’s tried several times but always starts again. She said she inhales about a pack a day.

Barbara Vaughan, from British Columbia, was standing in line at a rental car counter, smoking Vicount, a brand available in Canada but not in the United States. Vaughan said she can’t live without her Vicounts.

“I do about a pack a day and feel terrible about it,” Vaughan said. “I know it’s bad for me, and I’m always trying to stop. You just have to make up your mind to do it, and obviously, I haven’t done that.”

Vaughan and Hart believe smoking is as bad as the U.S. surgeon general says it is, and besides, they know it’s annoying to people who don’t smoke--maybe even to some who do.

Loriann L. doesn’t buy the health arguments and bitterly resents anyone telling her what to do.

“I smoke because it’s socially unacceptable,” said the 22-year-old Arizonan. “I smoke on planes because planes make me nervous. I always think I’m gonna die, that the damn thing’s gonna go down. . . . And there they are telling us we can’t do something. Can’t I have my crutch too?

“If I don’t die from smoking, it’ll probably be from nuclear disaster, from some jerk who told me I shouldn’t smoke dropping a bomb on somebody.”

Times staff writer Bob Pool contributed to this story.