Anti-Smoking Groups Call on Airports to Get Rid of Smoking Rooms
Jesse Tabit August 13, 2015
Woman with Cigarette Exhaling Smoke
Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) currently has five smoking rooms, all of which will disappear if anti-smoking groups get their way. SLC plans to consolidate the five rooms into two rooms over time, but anti-smoking groups are lobbying for the airport to get rid of the rooms entirely, claiming the areas a pose heath risk to all travelers due to the harmful effects of secondhand smoke.
SLC spokeswoman Bianca Shreeve says the rooms are designed to reduce the risk of travelers smoking in other parts of the airport. “The bottom line is that smoking is a pretty powerful addiction, and providing a place for smokers to smoke gives us the ability to control it, and that’s beneficial for the traveling public in general.”
A 2012 U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention Study (CDC) found air pollution levels outside smoking rooms were approximately five times higher than at airports without smoking rooms. Among the nation’s 35 busiest airports, only eight still house smoking rooms.
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[Photo: iStock]
Another ban brought to you by the tolerance brigade.
although cigarette smoke makes my eyes water and throat scratch, I find that if I don't stand immediately outside an airport's designated smoking area, I can avoid the "5x" contamination and feel just fine. Tolerance.
Reproduction is a pretty strong addiction too. Ban babies on planes and close all change rooms at airports! We special snowflakes need to torment and haunt normal people with normal needs and vices in order to achieve the ideal, joyless society.
I am vehemently anti-smoking, it's an awful habit. That said I'd much rather have a common area for smokers than have them smoking in the public restroom I have to use!
Keep the rooms. Ban the people who want to impose their values on others.