Tobacco Scam: Smokefree Restaurants: Ventilation Hoax

Big Tobacco fought for years to delay and weaken indoor air quality standards set by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), America's leading HVAC engineering body.

ASHRAE's standards shape building codes around the world.
Big Tobacco saw ASHRAE's early emphasis on "source control" (smokefree) measures as a business threat.
The tobacco industry managed to delay clear and effective standards on clean indoor air for more than twenty years.

ASHRAE's position is now crystal clear

[T]he 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�

Because of ASHRAE's mission to act for the benefit of the public, it encourages elimination of smoking in the indoor environment as the optimal way to minimize ETS exposure.

American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), June 2005

But Big Tobacco hasn't given up. It continues to back campaigns by front groups in the gaming industry to win separate air quality standards that would expose patrons and workers to secondhand smoke. This attempt to influence technical standards dates back a quarter of a century. A brief history:

1981 ASHRAE updates indoor air quality Standard 62 to require ventilation rates two-to-five times higher in smoking areas than in non-smoking areas. The new standard, Philip Morris noted, "would effectively double the costs for heating and cooling in areas which allow smoking." In effect, the new standard made it more economical to eliminate smoking entirely than to allow it anywhere inside. "

It is mind boggling to attempt to calculate the harm that [ASHRAE Standard 62-1981] would have done to our company and our industry had it been adopted. — Philip Morris

1989 Big Tobacco put representatives on ASHRAE's standard-setting committee, enlisted the Building and Official Code Administrators to reject Standard 62-1981, and spent eight years developing an indoor air quality standard that served its own commercial interests: ASHRAE Standard 62-1989. But appeals from science-based health advocates denied the tobacco industry complete victory. Language was added to inform HVAC professionals and code writers that:

with respect to tobacco smoke and other contaminants, this standard does not, and cannot, ensure avoidance of all possible adverse health effects.

1996 Eight years later, ASHRAE's Standard 62 Committee was ready to take a much stronger stand. Having considered the evidence, it concluded that the only way to ensure acceptable indoor air quality is to eliminate secondhand smoke. Big Tobacco convinced ASHRAE's board of directors to throw out to revised, health based standard and retain the pro-tobacco 1989 version — with the option of challenging standards even after publication to keep them from being codified.

This is a major victory for us. We have been working hard on preserving 62-1989 for five years... We have always attempted to work with ASHRAE by making technical presentations, suggestions and attended each committee meeting held since its formation. Finally, I can say our views have been heard and recognized. — Philip Morris

1999-2003 ASHRAE spent a decade developing Standard 62-1999, prescribing ventilation rates for all indoor, smokefree environments. In 2001, ASHRAE issued Standard 62-2001, making clear that its indoor air quality standard only applied to smokefree spaces. All indoor spaces, including restaurants, were covered by Standard 62-2001 and had to be smokefree to comply with the standard.
Big Tobacco, its allies, and fronts began pressing ASHRAE for a separate, lower standard for the hospitality industry. In 2003, ASHRAE's board voted to add an "Informative Appendix" that, while stating that it was not part of the standard, suggested ventilation rates for places (including restaurants, bars, casinos, and offices) where smoking is permitted — rates so low that they would expose patrons and workers to levels of fine-particle pollution and cancer-causing chemicals many times higher than the US EPA permits in outside air.

TobaccoScam and health groups led by Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights challenged ASHRAE's board on its cooperation with the tobacco industry.

2005 In the summer of 2005, ASHRAE's board approved a new Position Document on Environmental Tobacco Smoke [ETS]. It makes two key points:

At present, the only means of effectively eliminating health risk associated with indoor exposure is to ban smoking activity.

Because of ASHRAE's mission to act for the benefit of the public, it encourages elimination of smoking in the indoor environment as the optimal way to minimize ETS exposure.

The ASHRAE board also rebuffed Big Tobacco by opposing its petition to set lower standards for gaming and hospitality venues — a proposal subsequently rejected by a large majority of ASHRAE's members.

The bottom line: The leading engineering authority on ventilation standards says that ventilation is not a "solution" to secondhand smoke exposure. Smokefree is the only real solution.