Tobacco.org

"The Dormitory living quarters meets current health and safety standards as set forth by the Occupational Safety and Health Manual. Ventilation in these areas has been found to be adequate for smokers and non-smokers." What are these standards? How can a room appr. 15' x 9' with three smokers be guaranteed not to affect a non-smoker in the same room?

This is in response to your inquiry concerning the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations that apply to smoking in dormitories.

OSHA is charged with protecting the safety and health of workers and does not regulate the ventilation of residences. Currently, OSHA has no regulations that apply to smoking, however, OSHA does have a standard which limits employee exposure to carbon monoxide one of the products from the combustion of tobacco. The current OSHA permissible exposure limit (PEL) for carbon monoxide is 50 parts of carbon monoxide per million parts of air averaged over an 8-hour work day. I have enclosed the "NIOSH/OSHA Occupational Health Guideline for Carbon Monoxide" for your use. This guideline provided information on the health effects associated with carbon monoxide exposure.

Also, you may want to write to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concerning this matter. EPA is responsible for protecting the health of the general public and may have guidelines that apply to smoking. . . .

I have also enclosed an article entitled "The Problem of Passive Smoking" by James L. Replace of EPA for your use and a bibliography of references on tobacco smoke compiled by the National Capital Area Lung Associations.

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