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Jump to full article: B&W NewsReal, 2003-09-01
Author: John Klote, P.E., Fellow ASHRAE, Leesburg, Va.
Intro: Depressurizing a smoking room should be very effective at preventing particulate and fumes from escaping the smoking room, but would have much less impact on diffusion of gases.
The Authors Respond
We are not advocating the use of smoking rooms. . . .As the article indicates, when a smoking room operates under negative pressure conditions, some smoking room air still escapes when the smoking room door is opened and closed.
ASHRAE Standard 62-1989 made me ashamed to call myself an engineer. I was most gratified to learn that the engineers at ASHRAE have finally realized that the solution to non-smokers' concerns about environmental tobacco smoke lies in separation rather than dilution. . . . Organize a public relations campaign to educate the public about the fact that smokers and nonsmokers can peacefully coexist in the same building, that ASHRAE has established standards that ensure effective separation, and encouraging nonsmokers to look for the logo in advertisements for restaurants and other businesses.
I would be somewhat concerned at ASHRAE "certifying" a space as protecting non-smokers from exposure. Design is one thing. Operation and maintenance are another. In today's litigious society, some people will take advantage of that and claim they developed cancer or other respiratory disease from occupancy of a space, supposedly protected from environmental tobacco smoke.
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