OT- Smoking in Airports is another Holiday risk

[rothenbj]

Couldn't resist posting this as it hit Healthwatch in Phila. tonight on the 5 o'clock news.

Report calls out McCarran as more airports go smoke-free - Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010 | 9:05 a.m. - Las Vegas Sun

"There are public smoking rooms at the airports in Atlanta, Washington and salt Lake City. Atlanta and Denver allow smoking in airport bars and Dallas-Fort Worth permits smoking in private airline clubs. Ironically, the airport in Atlanta, the home of the CDC, has the most indoor smoking areas, 12, among airports that allow indoor smoking.

The report on smoking restrictions at airports is a part of this week’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published by the CDC. The report, issued a week before the nation’s busiest travel season, Thanksgiving, warns that 22 percent of U.S. passenger boardings take place at the seven major airports that still allow some form of indoor smoking.

“Completely eliminating smoking in all public places and workplaces, including airports, is the only way to fully protect nonsmokers from second-hand smoke exposure,” said Dr. Ursula Bauer, director of the CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, in a release accompanying the report.

The CDC estimates that 46 million Americans smoke and despite the adoption of state and local laws banning smoking indoors, 88 million nonsmokers continued to be exposed to second-hand smoke in public spaces, workplaces, homes and vehicles. The agency estimates that 46,000 people die of heart disease and 3,400 of lung cancer annually due to second-hand smoke."

I feel for the smoker today, glad I neither smoke or fly anymore.

 

[maxx]

My last flight was in 2003. Between the smoke nazis and the TSA pervo-thugs....I hope to never step foot in an airport again.

 

[PlanetScribbles]

Luckily we don't really need airports to traverse Europe. Jump on a hi-speed train at London St Pancras and nine hours later you can be on the French Riviera via the TGV.
I've had it with flying too. Far too much hassle, and I don't take kindly to being sexually assaulted at check-in.

 

[Vocalek]

Just heard on the news this morning that some airports are talking about getting rid of TSA and utilizing private security firms to conduct the screening. Apparently the law allows this. The airport managers feel that the private firms might be more sensitive to the passengers than the TSA folks.

 

[kristin]

My husband said there's been a lot of controversy over how TSA treats passengers (including an "enhanced" pat down of a 3 year old child - before they officially named it "enhanced"). A group is actually suing: Va. group files suit over airport searches | Richmond Times-Dispatch

“Completely eliminating smoking in all public places and workplaces, including airports, is the only way to fully protect nonsmokers from second-hand smoke exposure."

The crazy thing is that there is absolutely no proof that brief exposure to smoke (like you would get passing a smoking area in an airport) causes ANY adverse health effects to bystanders. There is a HUGE difference between being in close quarters with a smoker over many years (such as working in a bar or living with a smoker) and walking through or near smokers for a brief moment. Why the need to protect people from something that carries little or no risk? I agree that well-ventilated "smoking rooms" would be best to protect airport workers from regular exposure, but if such rooms already exist, why do they need to be eliminated?

 

[maxx]

The odds of being killed by a terrorist is roughly 20,000,000 to 1. I think the odds of dying from walking past a smoking area is probably about the same. Then half the people who worry about terrorists and second-hand smoke, will get into their cars and NOT put on their seatbelt. Are we a nation of cowards....or just hypocrites?

 

[Elokin6]

OMG! The busiest and largest airport in the country has the most smoking areas!!! I'm completely shocked!!!

Seriously though, I worked at Denver International Airport for a couple of years, and I can tell you that the two bars that allowed smoking at the time pose no threat to the people who aren't in them. First of all, you can pretty much stand outside the door and not smell a thing. Second, the one on concourse B is upstairs where NO ONE who isn't going to the smoking lounge has any excuse to be. The only one that might be annoying is the newer one on A, but they have a wicked filtration system and it's also upstairs. I can't remember if you can smell the smoke if you aren't actually in the bar.

Anti-smokers really need to quit freaking out about this.

 

[Vocalek]

OMG! The busiest and largest airport in the country has the most smoking areas!!! I'm completely shocked!!!

Seriously though, I worked at Denver International Airport for a couple of years, and I can tell you that the two bars that allowed smoking at the time pose no threat to the people who aren't in them. First of all, you can pretty much stand outside the door and not smell a thing. Second, the one on concourse B is upstairs where NO ONE who isn't going to the smoking lounge has any excuse to be. The only one that might be annoying is the newer one on A, but they have a wicked filtration system and it's also upstairs. I can't remember if you can smell the smoke if you aren't actually in the bar.

Anti-smokers really need to quit freaking out about this.

Just went through the Denver airport a few weeks ago and stopped into the Mesa Verde Smoking Lounge, where my blue-tipped 510 generated a lot of conversation. At least one of those people took one of my CASAA business cards and may become one of us (*fingers crossed*). You are correct about not being able to smell anything outside. The Mesa Verde is the one on the second floor of Concourse A.

The Mesa Verde has a dining area outside of the enclosed dining room where smoking is permitted.

Too bad the regular restaurants don't have that pattern. Smoking is permitted indoors, and if non smokers want to dine w/o smoke, they can sit outside. (*Wicked grin*)

In the main terminal, the doors to the bar that allows smoking are so thick and the air pressure is such that you really have to yank to get the door open. You absolutely cannot smell anything if you are standing outside the doors.

 

[maxx]

Wonder what happens if you not only refuse the naked scanner and enhanced groping...but also light up a cigarette in the security area?

...probably just shoot you.....

 

[Vocalek]

And in today's news at the security area of McCarran airport a man took off his jacket and shoes, carefully placed theim in one of the bins, then proceeded to remove all of his remaining clothing. He then reached into the bin, pulled out a cigarette and lighter, and lit the cigarette. TSA agents shot him dead at the scene.

Film at 11.







The above is a work of fiction, in case you are wondering....

 

[wave42]

OMG! The busiest and largest airport in the country has the most smoking areas!!! I'm completely shocked!!!

I've been flying in and out of Atlanta yearly for the last 31 years. And yes, I have been in their smoking lounges which usually contain and least a few members of the flight crew from which ever airline is using that concourse. Even with the ventilation system, it's pretty horrific once you're inside. If you're walking past, you're not really going to notice it any more than you'd notice someone walking nearby who smells like cigarette smoke.

 

[rothenbj]

I've been flying in and out of Atlanta yearly for the last 31 years. And yes, I have been in their smoking lounges which usually contain and least a few members of the flight crew from which ever airline is using that concourse. Even with the ventilation system, it's pretty horrific once you're inside. If you're walking past, you're not really going to notice it any more than you'd notice someone walking nearby who smells like cigarette smoke.

The big problem here is not the second hand smoke, but the third and forth hand smoke that is so deadly. Well, at least some scientists find it such.

The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary

 

[Vocalek]

My husband quit smoking three years ago, and I stopped 19 months ago. We keep running into 99th and 100th-hand smoke.

 

[maxx]

I've seen something similar.....but with stupid people. I have noticed that an anti-smoker who has been with another anti-smoker is just as stupid as the first anti-smoker.

 

[sherid]

Does anyone else see the horrific irony of worrying about shs in an airport where jet fuel permeates the air?
Third runway opponents see victory in concessions

 

[sailorman]

Just heard on the news this morning that some airports are talking about getting rid of TSA and utilizing private security firms to conduct the screening. Apparently the law allows this. The airport managers feel that the private firms might be more sensitive to the passengers than the TSA folks.

The operative word is "might". There's no real reason to suspect that they will. There are reasons to think they won't. They might be more sensitive at the beginning, when they are under scrutiny. But after just one incident of someone getting something through screening, you'll see the private firms adopt practices that make the TSA look like the height of prudish decorum. When there are lucrative contracts at stake and private investments to protect, nothing will be considered too intrusive.

If you want proof, you need look no further than the experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. The private contractors are responsible for the vast majority of incidences where civilians and, for that matter, combatants have been abused.

Nothing trumps decorum like the profit motive.

 

[sailorman]

The odds of being killed by a terrorist is roughly 20,000,000 to 1. I think the odds of dying from walking past a smoking area is probably about the same. Then half the people who worry about terrorists and second-hand smoke, will get into their cars and NOT put on their seatbelt. Are we a nation of cowards....or just hypocrites?

Simple answer: Both

But what would the anti's do if they couldn't stamp out every last vestige of smoking anywhere?

I'll tell you what is next. My prediction is that before long, if you are a smoker and you want to sell your house or car, you will have to first hire a hazardous material removal company to eliminate any trace of nicotine or tars built up on the surfaces. No home, car, boat or airplane can be sold without being certified as nicotine/tar free, similar to the lead or asbestos free designation.

You may laugh, but it is coming. I recently read an article where some smoking nazi is claiming that the film of tars found on walls and interior surfaces of a smoker's home is a danger even worse than SHS. They're calling it Third hand smoke.

 

[Dillan]

You may laugh, but it is coming. I recently read an article where some smoking nazi is claiming that the film of tars found on walls and interior surfaces of a smoker's home is a danger even worse than SHS. They're calling it Third hand smoke.

We need to get ahead of this, clearly. Perhaps we can reclaim the term by calling it Pre-owned smoke

 

[PaulB]

("Well-duh!" response of the thread...) Of course we all know it's not about anybody's health; it's about being mean to smokers.

 

[Brat]

That's one thing that ALWAYS drove me crazy about flying, back in June, I went to the Virgin Islands. On our way back, we were on holdover for like almost FOUR hours. They offered no smoking lounge, nor outdoor smoking area due to "security risks". I'd already gone through security, and we weren't allowed to go back out through security....willingly submitting to a SECOND security scan if I had gotten out. Thank god I now have the e-cig...that way if I DO fly...I won't have a nic fit again...LOL But with TSA as it is...I probably won't fly ever again LOL