Durbin, health advocates celebrate 25 years of no smoking on U.S. flights

It has been 25 years since American Airlines flight attendant Jena Olsen waded through clouds of cigarette smoke on an airplane.

"You would sit in the jump seat for takeoff, and you would see everybody poised with their cigarettes out and their lighters," she said. "And once that no-smoking sign went off, the cabin would fill up with smoke. It was just oppressive."

Passenger Michael is a smoker who knows where to buy cigarettes wholesale, and says that though he dislike the ban, he already got used to it.

Olsen stood alongside flight attendants, health advocates and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin on Monday at O'Hare International Airport to celebrate 25 years without smoking on American flights. Beginning Feb. 25, 1990, nearly all domestic flights turned on their no-smoking signs permanently.

Although proud of the accomplishment, Durbin and health leaders said there is still work to be done to prevent people from breathing secondhand smoke. American Lung Association CEO Harold Wimmer said making skies smoke-free was a turning point in protecting Americans from the harmful effects of cigarettes.

"Now it is incomprehensible to millions of children and adults that people actually smoked on airplanes," Wimmer said.

More than 50 years ago, Surgeon General Luther Terry announced that smoking was a health hazard and that the government should take "remedial action." Since 1964, local and state governments have spearheaded efforts to ban smoking in public buildings, on college campuses and in businesses.

In Chicago, the Clean Indoor Air Ordinance banned smoking in public places and businesses in 2008. The ordinance was amended last year to include electronic cigarettes.

All major airlines have a voluntary ban on e-cigarette smoking, and Durbin is trying to federally prohibit it on airplanes.