WHERE THERE IS NO SMOKE There is a sore thumb

Posted on 12/10/2015

H ere’s one to scare you. How long ago would you guess it is since smoking was banned on commercial airplanes? In some ways it seems like forever and for many younger readers it probably is – the answer is 25 years ago this past April.

I am writing this onboard a flight from Miami to New York and what set me to thinking about this was a fellow passenger in the jetway who absolutely reeked of cigarette smoke - thankfully he isn’t sitting next to me. In any case it struck me that prior to 1988 every airplane used to smell like this guy and just how far we have come since that time in ridding our environment of the dangers of second hand smoke.

It really is incredible now, in our tobacco smoke-free world, to think just how prevalent that evil blue haze used to be; not just in flight but almost everywhere - in homes, bars, restaurants, hotel rooms, taxi cabs and offices. Watch an episode on ‘Mad Men’ or any old movie and try to spot a character, male or female, who goes more than a couple of minutes without lighting up.

Of course a quarter century ago ‘second hand smoke’ was not something anyone seemed to think of as being particularly dangerous. So when the airlines were obliged to make it lights out, the tobacco industry was outraged calling the new law an ‘intrusion on individual rights’ and arguing that most people were satisfied with the existing separation of smokers and non-smokers. It contended that there was no evidence to suggest that tobacco smoke on airplanes could possibly warrant such a ban. In retrospect a quite incredible argument – having a smoker puffing away in the row behind you was a clear intrusion on the non-smokers rights - not vice versa!

I remember that when the ban went into effect it was largely a non-event. Most smokers adjusted to it quickly and many expressed their gratitude for the change, saying it might help them learn how too kick it. Cabin crews – even those who smoked - were also pretty happy with the improvement in their workspace. Strangely the biggest push back came from the pilot group many of whom became quite vitriolic in their opposition to the new rule. Nowadays it is hard to imagine a tight little space like a cockpit with anyone, let alone three of them smoking in there, but the incidence of smokers in pilots seemed much higher than just about any occupation – except perhaps movie stars.

I remember being surprised to see a Virgin Atlantic 747 taxiing onto stand at Newark with the flight deck roof hatch open. When I asked one of the ground crew who the operating captain was I knew immediately what was going on. The captain in question was a Bolshie character at the best of times and a hardened nicotine addict who had argued that “no stupid new rule and no one” was going to deny him the right to smoke while on duty. So obviously he’d been exercising “his right“ and the hatch was open to let the smoke dissipate before the doors opened. Anyway he was sadly mistaken in his assertion and after that flight he never smoked on duty again – at least not with Virgin!

I wonder if 25 years from now we might be talking about another menace that, like second hand smoke in the eighties, we didn’t know enough about in the ‘two thousand and tens’? Look around a departure area and where every other adult once had a cigarette in their hands, now 75 percent or more of every age group has a smartphone or tablet in front of their noses. And on boarding an airplane the cabin crew has a much tougher job today getting passengers to turn off their ‘electronic devices’ in preparation for takeoff or landing than they ever had getting people to extinguish their cigarettes.

But like the health dangers of second hand smoke there seems to be a mounting slew of evidence that excessive use of cellphones can also cause a variety of ailments. A distant cousin to Carpal Tunnel syndrome, which can be caused by the overuse of desktop computers, is the lesser-known “Blackberry Thumb Syndrome”. I assure you I am not making this up!

However this form of mild thumb strain pales in comparison to the medical concern about excessive cell phone use and the dangers of radiation causing brain tumors that has been going the rounds for some years now. Let’s hope there’s no foundation to it.

There is also a new Korean study which links cell phones to a marked rise in the incidence of herniated disc problems in people’s lower backs. It seems that the problem stems from the bad posture and forward tilted head position that most people assume when looking down at their cell phone or IPad. According to the research, a human head weighs about ten pounds on average, but when held at a 45 degree forward angle for excessive periods of time it increases the effective weight by as much as 200 percent which in turn adversely affects the lower spine. Why this would be any different than with avid book readers I have no idea, or maybe it isn’t.

Excuse me a moment ... “Who me? Turn it off? But why, don’t we still have ten minutes to touch down! Oh all right then if I must.”