Despite Months of Public Outcry, Wayne County Airport Authority Releases Request for Cigar Lounge Proposals
Fill out the contact form and let DTW know how you feel about the plans to add an indoor cigar bar.
Detroit, MI — This holiday season, more than a million travelers will pass through the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW). Those travelers could soon face clouds of toxic cigar smoke. Yesterday, the Wayne County Airport Authority (WCAA) released a Request for Proposals to build a cigar lounge inside the airport’s main terminal, ignoring almost 100 comments and testimonies from public health and workers’ rights advocates urging against the decision.
“On top of all the usual difficulties that come with flying, travelers will now have to deal with the extreme health hazard of secondhand smoke exposure as they pass through one of the busiest airports in the country,” said Cynthia Hallett, MPH, president and CEO of Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR). “Not to mention, airport workers will be forced to breathe in toxic fumes just to earn a living — all because the WCAA has the false hope of providing a new ‘amenity’ that the public does not want. Public health officials, advocates, and concerned community members have testified and submitted countless comments over the past year asking WCAA not to release the Request for Proposals, but they did not listen. It is clear now that WCAA had no respect for public opinion or concern for public health, and we are extremely disappointed to see that millions of travelers will now have to face the consequences.”
Introducing a cigar lounge to DTW would put airport employees and travelers in direct contact with secondhand smoke. Even in nonsmoking areas, studies in airports with smoking lounges consistently show elevated levels of particulate matter (PM2.5), endangering the health of both travelers and employees.
The decision to open a cigar lounge in DTW goes against public opinion and recent trends. In a recent survey of 600 people around Michigan, 77% of respondents said they would not support a cigar lounge inside DTW. In 2023, DTW was ranked number one in customer satisfaction among mega airports by J.D. Power — by introducing a cigar lounge, WCAA risks tarnishing its reputation and alienating travelers, especially as airports nationwide are eliminating smoking lounges and moving toward overall modernization to enhance the passenger experience.
Background
Tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure kills nearly 500,000 Americans every year. Secondhand smoke puts adults who don’t smoke at risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer. According to the CDC, “There is no risk-free level of secondhand smoke. Even brief exposure can cause immediate harm.”
Studies have consistently shown that exposure to secondhand smoke increases the risk of heart disease, lung cancer, and respiratory illnesses. Recent research by the CDC has affirmed that prohibiting smoking throughout the entirety of an establishment is the only effective way to protect workers from these harms.
Health and engineering experts overwhelmingly agree that there is no safe level of indoor smoking. Even the engineers who design ventilation systems have said, “At present, the only means of effectively eliminating health risks associated with indoor exposure is to ban smoking activity… No other engineering approaches, including current and advanced dilution ventilation or air cleaning technologies, have demonstrated or should be relied upon to control health risks from ETS [environmental tobacco smoke] exposure in spaces where smoking occurs…”
The DTW proposals would also go against recent decisions by airport authorities to eliminate smoking lounges from nearly all airports across the country. Recently, Washington Dulles International Airport updated its policy, announcing the permanent closure of all smoking lounges. This follows the transition of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to a completely smokefree indoor environment. Only 4 airports still allow some form of the practice.
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Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR) is a member-supported, non-profit advocacy group that has been working for nearly 50 years, since 1976, to protect everyone’s right to breathe nontoxic air in workplaces and public places, from offices and airplanes to restaurants, bars, and casinos. ANR has continuously shined a light on the tobacco industry’s interference with sound and life-saving public health measures and successfully protected 61% of the population with local or statewide smokefree workplace, restaurant, and bar laws. ANR aims to close gaps in smokefree protections for workers in all workplaces, including bars, music venues, casinos, and hotels. For more information, please visit https://nonsmokersrights.org and https://smokefreecasinos.org.
