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Jump to full article: Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute (FAMRI), 2007-02-21
Intro:
Bland Lane (click the picture to view a larger copy) Even though I never intended to make a living as a Flight Attendant, I have been one for my whole adult life, and I wouldn't change a minute of it. . . .
I was also exposed to second hand tobacco smoke during the flights, and on transoceanic flights this could be as long as 16 hours. As a non-smoker, I learned survival skills to cope with this hazard and devised ways to clear the air. For example, using my position on the crew as Purser, I would go up to the cockpit and request to have the no smoking signs turned on for fifteen to thirty minutes or I'd ask the pilots if the cabin pressure could be raised 1,000--2,000 feet. I would also take a few minutes to suck on oxygen in the cockpit to help clear my lungs. During the years when airlines handed out free cigarettes, I would "forget" to do so, and take them out of the liquor kits only when asked. When my flights ended, I personally reeked of tobacco smoke--in my hair, permeating my uniforms and even the clothes in my suitcases, which were stowed in the baggage compartment.
When I learned about the class-action lawsuit instigated by non-smoking Flight Attendants, I became involved with it because as a non-smoker, I have been diagnosed with a smoker's disease.
Lani Blissard (click the picture to view a larger copy) I have been flying with American Airlines since 1967 when smokers had their rights and this was never questioned. . . .
Leisa Sudderth (click the picture to view a larger copy) I started flying for American Airlines in 1985, and no one could have been more proud to put on that uniform. . . .
Patty Young (click the picture to view a larger copy) I became a stewardess--as we were called then--in the summer of 1966. Around 1969 I began my huge, multi-layered fight to have smoking banned on all airline flights. . . .
* "Patty, 'I was told by my doctor that I have the lungs of a smoker-and I have never smoked'." This intrigued me. After asking my own doctors and others I encountered how someone could have the disease of a smoker, never having smoked, they had no answers for me.
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