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Policy options

Inadequacy of separately ventilated smoking areas

Allowing smoking indoors only in separately ventilated areas is one policy option available for companies interested in protecting their nonsmoking employees from secondhand smoke, but it is not a very good one. The tobacco industry has for years pushed ventilation technology as a sensible, reasonable, common sense solution to accommodate the interests and needs of both smokers and nonsmokers in indoor environments, but the body of scientific evidence shows that ventilation does not adequately eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke.

	Based on current scientific information, even the newest ventilation technologies under ideal conditions are incapable of removing all secondhand smoke and its toxic constituents from the air.
	Ventilation technology does not serve as an alternative to eliminating exposure to secondhand smoke as the best strategy to protect people's health.
	While ventilation may potentially reduce levels of exposure to secondhand smoke, there remains no scientific evidence or consensus about whether there is any safe level of exposure.
	No credible scientific, medical, or engineering authority has claimed that ventilation is capable of protecting people's health from the toxins in secondhand smoke.
	The CEO of Chelsea Group, Ltd., the ventilation consultant to Philip Morris U.S.A., has testified that renovating most building ventilation systems in a way that even attempts to remove all secondhand smoke contaminants from the air would require every building owner to "restructure the entire building" and that such major retrofits would cost "tens of thousands of dollars". By comparison, a 100% smoke-free policy is free.
	Honeywell, Inc., the leading industry manufacturer of ventilation products says that while they stand by the efficiency and quality of their air cleaners as comfort and convenience products, they do not now nor have they in the past made any claims that their products reduce or eliminate health hazards from secondhand smoke.
	The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has stated that general ventilation as delivered by heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems is not an acceptable engineering control measure for controlling exposure to secondhand smoke.
	Secondhand smoke consultants Repace Associates, Inc. have stated in a report for the California Department of Health Services that "... it is clear that dilution ventilation, air cleaning, or displacement ventilation technology even under moderate smoking conditions cannot control ETS [secondhand smoke] risk to de minimis levels for workers or patrons in hospitality venues without massively impractical increases in ventilation... Smoking bans remain the only viable control measure to ensure that workers and patrons of the hospitality industry are protected from exposure to the toxic wastes from tobacco combustion."

Adopting a 100% smoke-free policy is clearly the simplest, cheapest, and most effective way to protect people from secondhand smoke. But what if you still want to consider providing a separately ventilated smoking area for your smoking employees? the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) makes recommendations about the most effective way to do so:

"EPA recommends that every company have a smoking policy that effectively protects nonsmokers from involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke. Prohibiting smoking indoors or limiting smoking to rooms that have been specially designed to prevent smoke from escaping to other areas of the building are two options that will effectively protect nonsmokers … If smoking is permitted indoors, it should be in a room that meets several conditions:

	Air from the smoking room should be directly exhausted to the outside by an exhaust fan. Air from the smoking room should not be re-circulated to other parts of the building. More air should be exhausted from the room than is supplied to it to make sure ETS doesn't drift to surrounding spaces.
	The ventilation system should provide the smoking room with 60 cubic feet per minute of supply air per smoker. This air is often supplied by air transferred from other parts of the building, such as corridors.
	Nonsmokers should not have to use the smoking room for any purpose. It should be located in a non-work area where no one, as part of his or her work responsibilities, is required to enter.”

References:

1. Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Ventilation technology does not protect people from secondhand tobacco smoke [Fact sheet]. 4/18/2001. Available at: http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0145.pdf. Accessed 3/19/2003.

2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Office on Smoking and Health, USDHHS, Wellness Council of America, American Cancer Society. Making your workplace smokefree: A decision maker's guide 1996.