Hotel Committee, please note
05-17-2013, 04:41 PM
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Hotel Committee, please note
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Staying in a nonsmoking room in a hotel that allows smoking elsewhere does not prevent exposure to tobacco smoke, a new study reports.
Writing in Tobacco Control, researchers examined a sample of 10 hotels with complete smoking bans and 30 with designated smoking rooms. They analyzed air and surfaces for tobacco smoke pollutants, took finger wipe samples to measure the presence of tobacco carcinogens, and tested the urine of nonsmoking occupants after they had stayed in the rooms.
Some nonsmoking rooms were quite low in pollutants. But at their worst, levels of tobacco air pollutants were almost five times as high in nonsmoking rooms as they were in rooms of nonsmoking hotels, and pollution of surfaces was up to 25 times as high. In some cases, nonsmokers who stayed in nonsmoking rooms had signs of nicotine exposure in their urine that were more than twice as high as those of nonsmokers who stayed in nonsmoking hotels.
Only four states — Indiana, Michigan, North Dakota and Vermont — completely prohibit smoking in hotels, and designated smoking rooms do not work, according to the lead author, Georg E. Matt, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University.
“Smokers leave a legacy behind that they cannot control,” he said. “The physical reservoirs — in the fabrics, the blankets, the upholstery, the drywall — are very deep, and you can’t just take them out.”
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PUBLISHED MAY 17, 2013
Staying in a nonsmoking room in a hotel that allows smoking elsewhere does not prevent exposure to tobacco smoke, a new study reports.
Writing in Tobacco Control, researchers examined a sample of 10 hotels with complete smoking bans and 30 with designated smoking rooms. They analyzed air and surfaces for tobacco smoke pollutants, took finger wipe samples to measure the presence of tobacco carcinogens, and tested the urine of nonsmoking occupants after they had stayed in the rooms.
Some nonsmoking rooms were quite low in pollutants. But at their worst, levels of tobacco air pollutants were almost five times as high in nonsmoking rooms as they were in rooms of nonsmoking hotels, and pollution of surfaces was up to 25 times as high. In some cases, nonsmokers who stayed in nonsmoking rooms had signs of nicotine exposure in their urine that were more than twice as high as those of nonsmokers who stayed in nonsmoking hotels.
Only four states — Indiana, Michigan, North Dakota and Vermont — completely prohibit smoking in hotels, and designated smoking rooms do not work, according to the lead author, Georg E. Matt, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University.
“Smokers leave a legacy behind that they cannot control,” he said. “The physical reservoirs — in the fabrics, the blankets, the upholstery, the drywall — are very deep, and you can’t just take them out.”
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PUBLISHED MAY 17, 2013
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