Control of environmental tobacco smoke in restaurants.

Recently, the need to control environmental tobacco smoke {ETS) in restaurants and bars has increased. In Finland, a new law prohibiting ETS states that non-smoking areas must be established and the dispersion of tobacco smoke to non-smoking areas must be prevented. Employees' exposure to ETS must also be limited in restaurants to a reasonable level. In this new situation the existing instructions for designing ventilation in the hospitality industry are inadequate.

Ventilation and nicotine in restaurants.

Nicotine concentration in air has been measured in several restaurants by different measuring techniques. Several problems of the measuring techniques has to be solved before nicotine measurements can be used for approval purposes. For approval purposes, the checking of the ventilation may be more fruitful than nicotine measurements.

Assessment through environmental and biological measurements of total daily exposure to volatile organic compounds of office workers in Milan, Italy.

Personal exposure to total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs), benzene and toluene of 100 Milan office workers was assessed through personal air monitoring at home, in the office, and during commuting. Biological monitoring was performed by measuring blood benzene and toluene concentrations together with urinary trans-trans-muconic acid ( t,t-MA) and cotinine at the end of the monitoring period. The geometric means of the total 24-h personal exposure were 514 μg/m3 for TVOCs, 21.2 μg/m3 for benzene and 35.2 μg/m3 for toluene.

Pubs and clubs managing air quality.

Effectiveness of simple ventilation strategies and partitioning in mitigating the effects of passive smoking.

Pubs, bars and restaurants are places where smoking policy is still left to the discretion of the manager and where smoking is often permitted. However, there is demand to take measures to eliminate or reduce the effects of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) to non-smoking occupants. This paper reports the results of a field study in which ETS markers and air flow patterns were monitored in a number of occupied spaces.

Evaluation of ventilation performance in public spaces.

Smoking restrictions in the workplace and increased health consciousness at home have seen a sizable reduction in the number of spaces where smoking is permissible. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of ventilation in public houses, one of the few remaining public spaces where smoking is still socially acceptable. Little is known about the situation with shared occupancies, where relatively large areas are intended to accommodate both smokers and non-smokers.

Personal exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in eight European cities.

Exposures to respirable suspended particles (RSP) and both the particulate and vapour phases of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) were monitored in eight European cities. Over 1500 housewives and office workers participated in the studies by wearing personal monitors over a 24-h period to assess exposures in the home and workplace. Based upon median 24-h time weighted average (TWA) concentrations, the most highly exposed subjects throughout Europe were office workers living and working with smokers.

Design for smoking areas: Part 2 - applications.

Recent ASHRAE forums have revealed an increased interest in information and guidance relative to designing and applying ventilation systems for areas where smoking is permitted. There are few data currently available through ASHRAE for the engineer challenged with designing a cigar bar, a smoking lounge, or a bar or restaurant with smoking permitted. This paper applies laboratory data about the acceptance of environmental tobacco smoke to real-world applications.

Pages