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• Controlling Tobacco Smoke Pollution 

[FROM JIM REPACE:

Despite the fact that secondhand smoke (SHS) is a dangerous air pollutant, it often goes unregulated, and this permits various groups associated with the tobacco, casino, and hospitality industries to falsely claim or imply that ventilation can control it. This paper clearly shows that SHS particulate matter, if treated simply as respirable dust, cannot be controlled to the level of the U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for fine particles without cleaning the outdoor supply air AND hugely excessive and impractical rates of ventilation in excess of 80 air changes per hour. Secondly, it shows that if SHS is treated as the toxin and carcinogen it actually is, using combined lung cancer and heart disease dose-response relationships developed as guidance by Australian ventilation and medical authorities (and identical to those developed by Repace et al.(1998), it cannot be controlled to acceptable levels of risk used by U.S. federal regulatory agencies without tornado-like rates of ventilation of more than 120,000 air changes per hour. This is true regardless of whether ventilation is used alone or in conjunction with air cleaning. However, as my JOEM (2004) paper showed, after a smoking ban, hospitality industry air pollution levels are essentially no different from outdoor levels. ]

How does ventilation compare to smoking bans in controlling SHS in hospitality venues? On Nov. 27, 2002, Delaware banned smoking in all restaurants, bars and casinos, with the intent of giving hospitality workers the same occupational health protection that other workers had enjoyed since 1994.

This afforded an opportunity to investigate contemporary levels of SHS in the hospitality industry. I conducted an indoor/ outdoor air quality study in the Wilmington, Del., metropolitan area before and after the enactment of Delaware’s clean indoor air law.1 Table 1 describes the venues investigated, including a casino, six bars, and a pool hall.

The pollutants measured were respirable particulate matter (RSP) and particulate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PPAH), which are emitted by cigarettes, pipes, and cigars. . . .

I deployed concealed continuous real-time monitors for RSP, i.e., airborne particulate matter in the combustion range below 3.5 microns in diameter (PM3.5), and PPAH, as well as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, temperature, and relative humidity. All indoor venues visited were selected by personnel of the American Lung Association of Delaware to represent a cross-section of the spectrum of area hospitality venues. . . .

After 30 years of recommending ventilation rates for the control of tobacco smoke odor, Standard 62.1-2004 revised the Minimum Ventilation Rate Table to apply only to no-smoking spaces, recognizing the mortal hazard of SHS as defined by cognizant authorities.16 However, Standard 62.1-2004 requires additional (but unspecified) ventilation in excess of the table rates for engineers designing for smoking venues. . . .

Although no cognizant authority has set an acceptable level for SHS per se, we can ask if there is some level of mortality risk that federal regulatory agencies have viewed as acceptable? . . . .

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