by Shane Henson — November 30, 2012—Travelers who avoid going in the designated smoking areas in certain U.S. airports may unfortunately still end up breathing in secondhand smoke, along with those who clean and work in or near the areas. Average air pollution levels from secondhand smoke directly outside designated smoking areas in airports are five times higher than levels in smoke-free airports, according to a study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that should raise warning flags for anyone who frequents establishments with designated smoking areas as well as those buildings’ owners and managers responsible for healthy indoor air quality.
Indoor Air Quality at Nine Large-Hub Airports With and Without Designated Smoking Areas—United States, October-November 2012, conducted in five large-hub U.S. airports with smoking areas matched with four smoke-free airports with similar traffic, also showed that air pollution levels inside designated smoking areas were 23 times higher than levels in smoke-free airports. In the study, designated smoking areas in airports included restaurants, bars, and ventilated smoking rooms.
Five of the 29 largest airports in the United States allow smoking in designated areas that are accessible to the public. The airports that allow smoking include Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport, McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Denver International Airport, and Salt Lake City International Airport. More than 110 million passenger boardings—about 15 percent of all U.S. air travel—occurred at these five airports last year, says the CDC.
“The findings in today’s report further confirm that ventilated smoking rooms and designated smoking areas are not effective,” said Tim McAfee, director of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. “Prohibiting smoking in all indoor areas is the only effective way to fully eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke.”
Brian King, Ph.D., an epidemiologist with CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health and co-author of the report, added the warning that “People who spend time in, pass by, clean, or work near these rooms are at risk of exposure to secondhand smoke.”
A 2006 Surgeon General’s Report concluded that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. As the CDC reminds, secondhand smoke causes heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmoking adults and is a known cause of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), respiratory problems, ear infections, and asthma attacks in infants and children. Even brief exposure to secondhand smoke can reportedly trigger acute cardiac events such as heart attack. Cigarette use kills an estimated 443,000 Americans each year, including 46,000 heart disease deaths and 3,400 lung cancer deaths among nonsmokers from exposure to secondhand smoke, adds the CDC.
Although smoking was banned on all U.S. domestic and international commercial airline flights through a series of federal laws adopted from 1987 to 2000, no federal policy requires airports to be smoke-free, notes the CDC.
