smoke free

More and more airports and hub-airports are going smoke free due to tighter smoking bans. November is one of the nation’s busiest travel seasons. Airlines need connecting points to transfer passengers from one plane to another. These are called hub airports, and they are a total of 29 in the country.

According to the latest survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are seven large hub airports that still allow some sort of indoor smoking

● McCarran International Airport, Nevada

● Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (the nation’s busiest and the one with the most indoor smoking areas, 12)

● Dallas-Fort Worth International

● Denver International

● Charlotte-Douglas International in Charlotte, N.C.

● Washington Dulles International

● Salt Lake City International

The government noted that 22 % of holiday travelers will be boarding at the seven major hub airports that still allow some form of indoor smoking.

Despite state and local indoor smoking bans, the CDC reports that 88 million nonsmokers are exposed to secondhand smoke in public spaces (this includes workplaces and public places). CDC estimates close to 50,000 deaths annually due to secondhand smoke (including heart disease and lung cancer).

Dr. Ursula Bauer, director of the CDC National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion said:

“Completely eliminating indoor smoking in all public places and workplaces, including airports, is the only way to fully protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke exposure.”

There are ways to address the issue, and alienating smokers is not the solution. Having smoke free alternatives like Swedish snus, electronic cigarettes or gum at disposal could help. Some people don’t take kindly being sexually assaulted at check-in, and depriving them of a cigarette with a complete indoor smoking ban may escalate things.

Source: http://www.lasvegassun.com