Dedication

WE DEDICATE OUR RESEARCH TO ALL THE FLIGHT ATTENDANTS WHO WORKED FOR DECADES IN SMOKE-FILLED AIRLINE CABINS— THE CANARIES IN THE COAL MINES. EACH DAY FAMRI COMES CLOSER TO CURING THE DISEASES CAUSED FROM EXPOSURE TO SECONDHAND TOBACCO SMOKE AND IN DETECTING AT THE EARLIEST POSSIBLE TIME — WHILE CURABLE — THOSE LATENT DISEASES DEVELOPING AS A RESULT OF CIGARETTE SMOKE EXPOSURE.

“In spite of mounting scientific evidence from the 1950s through the 1980s of the harmful effects of exposure to the tobacco smoke of other passengers, the airline industry made only minimal efforts to protect nonsmoking travelers and crew. Although smoking and nonsmoking sections were created, cabin air was shared by all. FAMRI funded research and publications have resulted in a significant body of scientific evidence about secondhand smoke. I am honored to have met many of these valiant flight attendants through FAMRI, which continues to elucidate the health problems they sustained in their workplace and to share their compelling story with the world.”

Alan Blum, MD, Professor of Family Medicine, University of Alabama, FAMRI Distinguished Professor

“I am old enough to remember leaving airline flights wheezing and am grateful to have had the opportunity to provide some of the research that supported the flight attendants’ efforts to make airlines smoke-free. Our early research rarely benefited from funding since NIH and others rarely appreciated the health or policy importance of secondhand tobacco smoke, both as a cause of respiratory disease, heart disease, and cancer. It is gratifying to see that, after playing an important role in protecting all of us from cigarette smoke on airlines, the flight attendants have used the results of their lawsuit against the tobacco industry to create FAMRI, which is, to this day, continuing to provide leadership through supporting cutting edge science on secondhand tobacco smoke and the diseases it causes.”

Stanton Glantz, PhD, Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, FAMRI Distinguished Professor

“To all the flight attendants and others in the airline industry who fought for our right to breathe air free of tobacco smoke. FAMRI has played a pivotal role in supporting research on the health risks caused by tobacco and second hand tobacco smoke exposure causing the diseases suffered by flight attendants from such exposure in airline cabins. Critical scientific evidence that lay dormant for so long is now available because of FAMRI funding – THANK YOU!”

Michael Cummings, PhD, Chairman and Cancer Research Scientist V, Roswell Park Cancer Center, former FAMRI Medical Advisor and FAMRI Distinguished Professor

“I think it is an excellent statement of the core commitments of FAMRI. Born out of litigation brought by non-smoking flight attendants who sounded the alarm of the rising concern about cigarette use as a health risk to them and their passengers, FAMRI strives to address these maladies through scientific and medical research for treatment and cure of flight attendant diseases caused by tobacco smoke exposure in airline cabins.”

Allan Brandt, PhD, former Dean of Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, FAMRI Distinguished Professor