Essay: Evaluating case study – smoking on aeroplanes

In the book Moment in Leadership – Cases in Public Health Policy and Practice the case of Patty Young and Smoke-Free Planes is presented. This case is about a woman who at a young age knew that being a flight attendant was her calling. At the age of 20, she began her career as a flight attendant. Almost immediately she saw that something was wrong with the system; passengers were being allowed to smoke on the airplane! Coming from a family of smokers, Young was aware of the consequences of smoking and wanted to change the system. She found out that other flight attendants between ages 20 to 30 years old were being told by doctors that they had smoker lungs, when they were not smokers themselves. Patty realized that there were many problems to smoking on an airplane, which motivated her to create a campaign to ban smoking on airplanes.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 2,500,000 nonsmokers have died from health problems due to secondhand smoke (“Smoking & Tobacco Use,” 2017). Allowing smokers to smoke on airplanes is forcing nonsmokers to breathe in the toxic chemicals, since they are in an enclosed space. This means, even the babies and the senior citizens are inhaling these toxic chemicals, and because of their age they are more likely to be affected by it. For children, secondhand smoke puts them at risk to ear infections, asthma attacks, respiratory infections; it even puts them at greater risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) (“Smoking & Tobacco Use” 2017). Since they are young, their bodies have a slightly higher chance to put up a fight against these chemicals than the older adults. For adults, secondhand smoke puts them at risk to greater problems like heart disease, lung cancer, even strokes (“Smoking & Tobacco Use” 2017).
2. Current Situation
After working as a flight attendant for 37 years, Patty Young’s campaign began. She gained support from her fellow flight attendants and suggested to her passengers that they should get in contact with senators and representatives in Congress if they were uneasy about allowing smoking on planes. Eventually, she was able to perform a speech in front of congressional communities and found that there was growing support from the democrats, while the republicans were giving her a hard time. Slowly but surely, her campaign was moving forward with all the support from her fellow flight attendants and the Democrats.
Through this campaign, Young was educating all the passengers about the risks that come with smoking; making sure smokers know the risks of smoking inside a plane because then they will second guess their choices and might even consider not to participate. The strength is Young’s campaign to ban smoking. With this campaign, she gained a lot of followers who supported what she believed in, which was to ban cigarette smoking on airplanes. With the help of Young and her supporters, they could make a change in the laws about smoking on airplanes. The weakness is the stiff resistance from the Republicans. This is a weakness because they were the only ones going against what Patty Young had to say, and they gave her a hard time when she performed a speech for the congressional communities. The threat of this case is the lives of the smokers and those are being affected on the plane. If the smokers do not know the consequences of smoking, or simply do not care, they are more prone to diseases, health problems, and maybe even death (NIDA, 2018). Allowing smokers on a plane not only affects the smoker in which their health is getting worse, but it also affects the non-smokers who are breathing in the second hand smoke.
The mission for Patty Young’s campaign was to ban smoking on all airplanes. Only after several airplane crashes due to fires caused by lit cigarettes on the planes did Young’s campaign turn in her favor. In 1973 there was an emergency landing in Paris due to an out of control fire caused by a lit cigarette; all 124 passengers on the flight suffered death because of the fire and the plane lost control. This and many other airplane accidents were obvious cues for the congress to take into consideration. In 1984, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) banned smoking on all airplanes due to health and safety hazards that can cause fatal crashes. This gave Patty Young a sigh of relief because she finally got people to understand what she had to say and how she was trying to better the community.
3. Prioritize Core Issues
One of the core issues with smoking on airplanes is that it is hazardous. Young mentions how sometimes there would be clouds of smoke in the aisles while she was trying to walk down them. She would not be able to look past them and said sometimes would even trip or spill a drink because of the smoke. Tripping and spilling a drink are the more smaller issues with smoking on the plane. Something bigger and that affects more people is that planes are more likely to crash because of fires caused by lit cigarettes. There was two big airplane crashes also because of fires caused by lit cigarettes; which is way more serious than tripping of spilling a drink. Both of these accidents were fatal and affected many families.
Another core issue is that smoking in general is not good for. Nicotine itself is a powerful, addicting substance which is why it is very difficult for smokers to stop smoking. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIH), smoking every day causes long term brain changes that makes you want nicotine in your system all the time (NIDA, 2018). Since the body becomes addicted to the nicotine, and once you try to stop you will experience some withdrawal effects like: nicotine cravings, anxiety, depression, weight gain, headaches and many other things (Nicotine Dependence: How Does it Happen?, n.d.). On top of nicotine being addictive, it causes you to be more prone to chronic diseases and many health risk, possibly even death. Smokers tend to die at least twelve years sooner than nonsmokers (Schimpff, MD and Gerrans, 2013). You get to live a whole decade longer just because you don’t pick up a cigarette!
4. Analyze Alternatives
The solution of this case was that American Airlines, the airline company that Patty Young worked at finally announced that all domestic and international flights would be smoke free on June 2, 1997. This concluded the fight that Young was putting up. An alternative to this case can be having two different sections for the smokers and for the non-smokers. Doing this will allow those who do not smoke to stay away from the secondhand smoke. Putting the smokers in the back and the non smokers towards the front with aisles in between can satisfy both parties by allowing the smoke to stay in one section. Another alternative to this case is having a designated smoking area for smokers in the airport before people get on their flights. This way smokers are allowed to smoke before they get on to the plane and that way there is no temptation of smoking on the actual plane. This case can best be explained through the perceived barriers of the Health Belief Model (Behavioral Change Models, n.d.). Perceived barriers considers the passengers feelings on the action they have to take; in this case, the smoker considers the side effects and the withdrawal symptoms and decides whether or not it is worth to quit smoking. Those who believe that the final result of quitting smoking outweighs the temptation of smoking will successfully be able to quit smoking cigarettes.
5. Recommendation
One recommendation that can be taken into consideration is not allowing any sort of tobacco on the plane. Even now, passengers are allowed to bring tobacco on an airplane, but what if we turned tobacco on a plane illegal so that you’re not even allowed to bring it inside? This way people wouldn’t be able to smoke in or even around the airports. This also gives the opportunity to re-enforce the no smoking rule in airplanes. Another recommendation for this case is providing programs for smokers that help them quit. These programs should be easily accessible and low cost; this way everyone is able to access these programs to get help to stop smoking. Having the programs be local or providing transportation would make the programs more accessible for the smoker and they’re more likely to follow through with the program because it is simple and easy.
6. Action Plan
In order to achieve the recommendations, we have to implement and enforce more rules. The best way to take action on this would be to talk to the congressman about banning all tobacco products on airplanes and providing evidence as to why this would benefit us. Another thing, like mentioned earlier, providing accessible programs for smokers would be beneficial for the future. An action plan we can take is that by 2022 we should be able to provide at least one local program that is easily accessible for smokers in their city. By doing this, more people have access to these programs and it would be easier to quit. Fundraising money and having non profit organizations could also help make this happen. Something else that we need to continue to implement is having non smoking planes. Since the decision to ban smoking on all airplanes, people are less prone to chronic diseases, cancerous infections, and even death. With this in mind, the only way to keep the community healthier is to continue to enforce the rule about no smoking on an airplane.