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Why Secondhand Smoke Cannot Be Controlled With Ventilation

Secondhand Smoke Fact Sheet - Repace Associates Ichiro Kawachi, PhD, Associate Professor Stanton Glantz, PhD., Professor Why Secondhand Smoke Cannot Be Controlled By Ventilation This is illustrated by Figure A-1 below. The vertical axis refers to air pollution levels measured in restaurants, bars, and other establishments in the Washington DC metropolitan area; the horizontal axis refers to the smoker density. The dashed lines refer to the calculated air exchange rates, which span the range from 1/2 air change per hour in a naturally ventilated bingo game (data point T), to a maximally-ventilated cocktail lounge (data point F) at 7 air changes per hour. Generally, the best ventilated spaces have the highest smoker densities. The number of burning cigarettes per hundred cubic meters multiplied by 3 gives the estimated density of smokers (Repace and Lowrey, 1980, 1982). This means that 1 burning cigarette per hundred cubic meters is equivalent to 3 smokers per hundred cubic meters, assuming the smokers smoke at the U.S. average rate of 2 cigarettes per hour. 1/2 to 7 air changes per hour is the practical range of ventilation in most buildings. The figure illustrates that under all conditions of typical smoking and ventilation, the annual average level of the U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for fine particles (PM2.5), which defines clean air, is violated. The NAAQS is designed to protect against air-pollution-induced morbidity and mortality.

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