United States Department of Transportation
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Abstract:In 1976, the FAA was petitioned to issue regulations that would prohibit all smoking in the cockpit during commercial flight operations and prohibit preflight smoking by flight crew members within 8 hours before commercial flight operations. A review of the literature was conducted to determine the effects on pilot performance of carbon monoxide (CO), nicotine, and smoking withdrawal.
The literature is confusing because it frequently contains the results of studies using nonsmokers, CO only, estimated carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) levels, small and poorly ventilated chambers, and discrimination tasks were spare capacity is not a factor. Some frequently quoted results cannot be duplicated. Significant changes in psychomotor and cardiovascular performance with COHb levels less than 10 percent are doubtful. The records of 2,660 fatal general aviation aircraft accidents that occurred in 1973 through 1976 have been examined.
Toxicology reports are contained in 1,559 records, and 225 without fire had COHb levels greater than 1 percent. Smoking was not identified as a casual factor but may have contributed to the cause of some of these accidents. However, the compound factors that were often found and the dire consequences are far less likely to occur in air commerce operations. For some, withdrawal symptoms may occur and more than offset any benefits to aviation safety that are claimed for a ban on preflight and in-flight smoking.
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