Introduction of the Banning Smoking on Amtrak Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I introduce the Banning Smoking on Amtrak Act of 2019. My bill would simply codify Amtrak's internal policy prohibiting smoking, including of electronic cigarettes, on its trains. This bill is modeled on a bill I got enacted as part of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-254) that clarified that the smoking ban on airplanes includes electronic cigarettes.

Although Amtrak implemented its own internal policy banning smoking on its trains in 1993, that policy could always be repealed, though Amtrak has not indicated it would do so. My bill would make the ban a matter of federal law and put Congress on the record in support of protecting people from secondhand smoke.

Smoking bans have been a critical tool in protecting people from the effects of secondhand smoke, known to increase the risk for serious cardiovascular and respiratory diseases like coronary heart disease, lung cancer and emphysema, among others. The World Health Organization (WHO) considers the tobacco epidemic to be one of the biggest public health threats in the world, killing more than seven million people a year. While more than six million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use, around 890,000 non-smokers exposed to secondhand smoke are also killed every year.

Under my bill, smoking would be banned on Amtrak trains in the same manner as airline travel. According to the WHO, there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke. Even short-term exposure can potentially increase the risk of heart attacks.

I strongly urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

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