What’s at Stake if Indoor Smoking Returns to DTW

.

Bronson Frick, in Detroit, MI —On recent travels, I passed through Detroit Airport several times. Since DTW is now caught up in a smoking debate, I paid closer attention.

The airport was packed. There were not enough seats near the gates. People were trying to find food, charge their phones, keep track of their kids, and get to their flights. I did not see a big unmet need for a place to smoke indoors.

Detroit’s airport has been smokefree indoors for years. Now the airport authority is moving toward a cigar bar concession through an opaque process that has limited public input. The argument seems to be that cigar smoking is somehow different, or that it would be good for business.

Allowing any type of smoking in DTW would negatively impact the health of its more than 18,000 workers and more than 31 million passengers. Ventilation cannot contain the cigar smoke to an enclosed lounge. 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. Cigar smoke has even higher levels of tar and cancer-causing substances than cigarettes. When lit, cigars release fine particles that can cause heart and lung disease. 

Airport smoking rooms are a classic Big Tobacco gimmick. These spaces are intended to protect smoking profits, not health. Once installed they create a smoking area for another generation.  Smoke does not stay inside a smoking room. It drifts into the terminal and exposes workers and passengers. 

The DTW proposals would also go against recent decisions by airport authorities to eliminate smoking lounges from nearly all airports across the country. Only 4 airports still allow some form of the practice.

 
Our team at ANR, together with partners, are taking action to support smokefree air at DTW.  You can help by signing the coalition petition and contacting DTW by email or social media letting them know you want the airport to remain smokefree indoors for the health and comfort of workers and passengers.

###


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.