Absolutely not so. Smoking on airplanes was exactly as it sounds like - what you get when people smoke inside a metal cylinder packed with people. I used to fly all the time for work back then, international/intercontinental. It was bad. Very bad. Some airlines even experimented with "smoking zone on the right side, non-smoking on the left side".. what an idea. If this was today I couldn't fly at all, I've become so physically sensitive to tobacco smoke from all the passive exposure over the years. Throat contracts painfully long before I even smell the smoke and I just can't take it.

As for the air inside airplanes.. occasionally an Einstein will enter an airplane using perfume. It's hell. Airplanes have sometimes needed to perform emergency landings just to save the life of other passengers with perfume allergy. As for myself, if someone uses perfume I have to ask to get a seat half a cabin away. I don't get an allergic (breathing) reaction, just physical pain. So much for the supposed excellent air conditions.